Sandia Casino Expects 75% Energy Drop with LED Lights, Solar Panels

by | Jan 23, 2012

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Sandia Resort & Casino in Albuquerque will consume about a quarter the energy in its parking lots through switching hundreds of gas discharge lamps to Noribachi LED bulbs, the two companies have said.

The resort, owned and operated by the Pueblo of Sandia, has replaced 400W and 175W metal halide bulbs with LED bulbs using 115W and 57W respectively.

In addition, 52 of the fixtures include solar panels designed to exactly fit the lamps’ dimensions. Noribachi says the design (pictured) features a sleek black on black look, achieved in part through the use of mono-crystalline silicon – used in place of the far more ubiquitous poly-crystalline silicon. In addition to giving the panel a monochromatic black hue, the mono-crystalline silicon increases the panel’s efficiency to 18 percent, from the typical 12 percent of most panels.

Noribachi’s lighting control system gives the lights the ability to seamlessly switch back to standard grid power if the battery power has been depleted, the company said.

Noribachi previously performed an LED retrofit at the resort’s parking garage in June 2010, which the companies said resulted in greatly improved light color and quality as well as vastly reduced maintenance and energy costs.

In October, the 188,000-square-foot Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque, Iowa replaced about 750 incandescent down lights with Cree LED lighting, which it expected to reduce maintenance costs by nearly $23,000 a year.

Noribachi’s previous installations through its Qnuru lighting division have included a retrofit at California car dealership LAcarGUY that cut lighting-related energy consumption by 80 percent and had a 27-month return on investment.

At Olin College of Engineering in Boston, Mass., a Qnuru retrofit of street and parking lot lights cut lighting-related energy consumption by 81 percent and achieved a 26-month ROI, and at New Mexico Highlands University a project in the physical education complex cut lighting-related energy use by 76 percent with a 36-month ROI.

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