These Businesses Saved Big with LED Lighting Retrofits

About one-quarter of all energy usage in commercial buildings comes from lighting. However, the latest energy-efficient LED lighting technology—along with incentives from Ameren Missouri—offers organizations the opportunity to cut those costs drastically, saving electricity and money.

Not only do LEDs offer superior energy efficiency, compared to many other types of lighting, but they last much longer, too. Some LEDs have been rated for up to 50,000 hours, which equates to 50 times longer than incandescent lighting and five times longer than compact fluorescent lamps.

Indeed, the business case for LED lighting upgrades could not be stronger—especially with our BizSavers program incentives, which are available to Ameren Missouri commercial and industrial customers that make qualifying energy improvements.

With incentives, such LED lighting upgrades will pay for themselves in a very short time. Here’s a look at two of our customers that completed such projects: Pole Position Raceway—an indoor go-kart track in a former big-box retail space—and a national department store chain.

Pole Position Raceway Uses Energy Saving Incentives in the Workplace

When Mike Johnson, owner of Pole Position Raceway in St. Louis, decided to take over a former big box retail space to house his indoor go-kart track, he knew extensive renovations would be needed. Among those needs was a lighting system upgrade, and because Johnson opted for high-efficiency LED lighting, he qualified for a significant new construction incentive from the Ameren Missouri BizSavers program.

The project involved replacing old T12 florescent, metal halide, and incandescent fixtures with modern, efficient LED lighting, complete with occupancy controls.

These types of upgrades can save an organization up to 75% in annual lighting costs. LEDs also produce less heat—which equates to less cooling needed—and have an operational life of 100,000 hours or 22 years (if on 12 hours each day).

At a total cost of around $39,000 and without the cash incentives, the project would have still paid for itself in 2.6 years—but with the incentives, the project ended up paying for itself in just over 18 months.

In total, Pole Position Raceway received over $15,000 in cash incentives from the Ameren Missouri BizSavers New Construction program to replace its old lighting systems with LEDs and occupancy sensors.

Going forward, the LED lighting will save Pole Position Raceway an estimated $14,856 annually in energy costs.

“We are so thankful that Ameren Missouri has this program,” said Johnson. “The way the BizSavers program helped us from start to finish is a great example of big corporations helping small business owners.”

National Department Store Benefits By Making Business Energy Efficient

After analyzing lighting in four of its St. Louis-area stores, a national department store chain determined they could save $30,000 on annual electricity costs by replacing incandescent light fixtures with LEDs. In general, LED lights can save up to 84% in energy costs, compared to incandescent lamps.

The total cost of retrofitting 3,779 incandescent fixtures to LED fixtures was a little more than $100,000. Without an incentive, the retailer would have seen a 3.3 year payback on its investment. However, because their project qualified for a cash incentive from Ameren Missouri’s BizSavers program, they received a $23,172 incentive, which cut payback to 2.44 years.

The project allowed the four stores to reduce their total lighting load by 463,457 kWh per year, which will save them approximately $31,469 every year, moving forward.

These are just a few examples of how businesses used electricity incentives to make energy efficiency improvements, saving electricity and money. BizSavers incentives are available for almost any energy efficiency project, such as lighting, HVAC, building controls and more. No matter the size of your business, you can benefit from cost-saving upgrades that can help you achieve your goals and get cash back to reinvest in your company.

Learn more about increasing your energy efficiency with solutions from Ameren Missouri.