Lynnwood Honda LED Lighting Upgrades Case Study

Dealership upgrades to LED lighting for improved product visibility, security, and lower energy costs

Project Background & Scope

Conservation and energy savings are important to
Erik Nelson, president of Lynnwood Honda. At
the same time, high-quality lighting is critical
to showing their products on the lot, even though
it uses a substantial amount of energy. After
seeing LED lighting at another car dealer’s lot,
Nelson became interested in learning how LED
lighting might provide energy cost savings and
high quality lighting for his facility.

Nelson started with online research and a call
to the Lighting Design Lab (LDL) in Seattle. The
LDL referred him to their LED Qualifying Products
List and the DesignLights Consortium (DLC)
Qualified Products List to find products tested to
perform at specified levels. During his research,
he identified numerous benefits of LED lighting.
He read how light trespass and skyglow issues are
affecting exterior business lighting in many areas
and how LED lighting can make those issues easier
to address because of their directionality and less
intense light. Nelson calculated that the anticipated
reduction in maintenance due to the long lamp life
and five-year warranty would save about $4,000 each
fall when he normally re-lamped the metal halide
system. He talked with his utility, Snohomish PUD,
and found he could get a grant from them to help
pay for the project.

From his online research, Nelson had narrowed his
choices to either a retrofit product that would be
installed in the housing of the existing fixtures
or a new luminaire. Having learned about the
importance of thermal management to maintain the
longevity and light output of LED sources, he was
not convinced that the retrofit product adequately
addressed this issue. He selected the new LED
luminaire, the Sansi CO820 series of fixtures.

Lynnwood Honda

He selected new LED luminaires of 239W and 110W
to replace the existing 1000 W and 400 W metal
halide lighting. In addition to the main show
lot lighting, the dealership also used some 40W
LED wallpacks and two building flood lights of
70W, and two 120W area lights, also Sansi
products.

Results

Nelson is very excited about the results he is
seeing from this project. The lighting upgrade
was made in early January 2013 and was completed
in time to use during a week-long period of dense
fog. Although he had heard that LED lighting did
not penetrate fog well, he thought the LEDs
performed better than the metal halides performed
under the same conditions. Even though the utility representative believes there was about a 30%
reduction in average light level, the owner says
the new LED lighting definitely makes the area
seem brighter and enhances the appearance of the
vehicles on the show lot. Employees, neighbors and

another car dealer have noticed these improvements
and responded with favorable comments and questions.

It is too early to calculate the actual energy
savings because the lights have been in operation
for only a short time, including the unusually foggy
conditions in January, when the lights were turned on
for more hours than usual. Despite these conditions,
Nelson expects the savings to be substantial.

The high cost would have been a barrier to the
project, but a grant from the utility reduced this
barrier. Nelson says the payback will be just under
five years for the installation, and estimated
savings will be $17,000 -18,000 per year in energy
costs.

Lessons Learned

Nelson’s advice to other potential purchasers of
LED lighting is to do a lot of research on the
product you are interested in and the company
selling it.

Additional Resources

• LED Qualifying Products List:
http://lightingdesignlab.com/led-list
• DesignLights Consortium® (DLC) Qualified
Products List(QPL):http://www.designlights.org
/solidstate.about.QualifiedProductsList_Publicv2.php
• Sansi®：WWW.sansilighting.com
• Utility: Snohomish PUD

Sansi Cobrahead LED Lighting

Area Lighting(Left)/Wallpack Lighting(Right)

Considerations for Purchase

Before purchasing LED lighting:

• Understand warranty coverage and length.Coverage
might include various components, field repair,
shipping and labor, over 5 to 10 years. Warranty
eligibility may require multiple LEDs to fail
before replacement.
• Install a sample before committing to a purchase.
• Check your local utility for available incentives.
• Engage a professional to provide lighting thatmeets
your needs, complies with energy code, andis
compliant with utility incentive requirements.

Most utility incentives for LED lights use a
qualified list:

• For light bulbs, look for ENERGY STAR products:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=manuf_
res.pt_lighting
• For commercial light fixtures, refer to Design
LightsConsortium qualified product lists:
http://www.designlights.org

Additional questions to ask are listed at this U.S.
Department of Energy website: http://www.eere.energy
.gov/buildings/ssl/what-to-ask.html

Lynnwood Honda LED Lighting Upgrades Case Study

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