Kate Billington, who co-owns The Bakehouse in Dundarave in West Vancouver, B.C., is a hard-working woman. Not only does she oversee the creation of The Bakehouse’s homemade, preservative-free comfort food, she also works the register, visits with customers, fields phone calls from suppliers, restocks shelves and more, all while maintaining a happy and productive staff.
That level of activity would make anyone sweat. However, Billington says she wasn’t hot because she was always on the go. She was hot because of the uncomfortably high temperature inside the store. Heat from 26 halogen track lights, combined with round-the-clock use of the kitchen appliances, was driving up the temperature inside her store.
To compensate, Billington did what a lot of business owners do: she cranked up the air conditioning to create a more comfortable environment for customers and staff. The result was a sky-high BC Hydro bill.
To make matters worse, the store’s halogen light bulbs were burning out on a weekly basis. Billington knew something had to change, but finding time in her busy day to solve The Bakehouse’s temperature issues was a challenge, and the situation was outside of her area of expertise.
Thankfully, a Power Smart Alliance member was visiting businesses in the area, and happened to stop by The Bakehouse. After an initial consultation, the Alliance member suggested that Billington replace the store’s eight incandescent lights with screw-in LEDs, and its 26 halogen lights with LED reflector lamps.
Billington admits she was skeptical. Would switching to LEDs really help bring down the temperature inside the store? And would the LEDs emit the same warm-toned hue that she and her customers were used to? She also questioned why LED bulbs cost so much more than halogens.
Over coffee, the Alliance member shared his expertise. He told Billington that LEDs are much more energy efficient than incandescents and halogens, and they last a lot longer too. One of Billington’s requirements was that she wanted to keep using her existing fixtures; he said screw-in LEDs would work beautifully. He also told her that LEDs emit no heat, which would help Billington cut her air conditioning costs.
“Before we switched to LEDs, I would stop by my local hardware store on a weekly basis to pick up replacement bulbs,” says Billington, who estimates that she was replacing about four to six burnt-out halogen bulbs a month. “Since the LED installation, I haven’t had to replace a single light bulb and the light in the store is as warm and welcoming as it was before.”
The LED lighting upgrade at The Bakehouse qualified the store for a $376 Power Smart rebate. The rebate, combined with the projected annual cost savings of $913.50 per year, give The Bakehouse an estimated payback period of 12 months.
Even better, ever since the LEDs were installed, the store is now two to three degrees cooler. That, Billington says happily, means her air conditioning costs are down and her BC Hydro bill is much easier to swallow.
