Casino saves 2 million kW-hrs with LED retrofit

Nov. 10, 2008
Lime Energy's LED retrofit project is expected to deliver energy savings of $200,000 per year to Harrah's Valley Center, CA, casino and resort.
Lime Energy and Harrah's Rincon Resort and Casino, Valley Center, CA, have completed an energy efficiency retrofit project that produces significant benefits for the resort and the environment. The project includes new LED technology in elevators, recessed downlights and outdoor signage.

According to Lime Energy, this most recent project at Harrah’s cost $362,000 and had an installation time of 3 weeks. It involved 7735 lights: 2568 new 8 W LEDs that replace 50 W MR16s in elevators and decorative spots throughout the resort; 1317 new 13 W LED PAR 30 that replace 90 W halogen, mainly general illumination downlights, throughout the casino; and 3850 new 1.2 W lights that replace the 10 W standard lights in outdoor signage. Other projects with Harrah’s include linear LED for illumination under counters and railings (and cold cathode lighting for outdoor signs).

"Our goal was to save energy in a way that would not diminish our guest experience," said Brendan O'Kane, property operations manager for Harrah's Rincon. "The lighting technology provided by Lime Energy helped us exceed our goal by delivering energy savings of $200,000 per year, and significantly reducing my maintenance budget. This is really a great win for all of us because not only are we saving money here at the resort, we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by taking less electricity from the grid."

According to Cliff Knutson, Director of Lighting Technology for Lime Energy, LED lighting provides the same visual impact as the technology it replaces, so unless a person was one of a few experts in the field, the difference would never be noticed.

Inside Harrah's "Lighting with LED allows the property owner to select the color of the lights, and choose the maximum light output or 'brightness', without giving up the dimming capability," said Knutson. "Probably the best benefit of all is the incredibly long life, so when considering a casino's 24/7 operation, this is extremely important since constantly changing burned out lights is disruptive.”

Lime Energy says the replacement LEDs are designed to operate for 50,000 hours, which is at least 10 times longer than the bulbs they replaced.

"Lime Energy is proud to bring this energy efficiency solution to Harrah's Rincon," said Dan Parke, president and COO of Lime Energy. "Lighting with LED is relatively new, and because Lime Energy is independent from any lighting manufacturer, we can make the very best choice among several new technologies to meet the specific needs of each one of our customers.”