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Macy's will double LED installation this year

Replacements are part of the retailer's program to reduce electricity consumption another 8 percent to 10 percent over next three years.
Written by Heather Clancy, Contributor

How many lightbulbs does it take for a national retailer to save many kilowatt-hours of electricity? Close to 400,000, apparently.

In 2010, as part of a broad program to reduce energy consumption, retailer Macy's replaced more than 130,000 60-watt halogen bulbs with LED ones from MSI. This year, the company plans to more than doubled that installation with another 280,000 LED lights planned in more than 200 store locations.

According to a press release describing the installation, one of the most dramatic benefits of the LED bulbs is the fact that they can last for almost a decade. That compares with an average replacement cycle of about six months for a typical 60-watt halogen bulb burning 12 hour per day. Macy's is using the MSI iPAR series for its replacement project.

Over the past two years, Macy's has cut its electricity consumption by 10 percent. That's after a 9 percent reduction in the five years prior to that. Over the next three years, the retailer hopes to cut energy consumption on a kilowatt-hour-per-square-foot basis by another 8 percent to 10 percent over 2009 levels. Obviously, the LED project is just part of that. But it is a big part.

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