Ed Yamamura owns four McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii and had made the decision to operate the restaurants 24 hours each day despite the high energy and maintenance costs related to lighting. A retrofit of the Kapolei West location with LED lighting from Light Efficient Design, however, will deliver significant savings and has Yamamura thinking about broader deployment of solid-state lighting (SSL) products both indoors and outdoors at his restaurants.
The outdoor lighting at the restaurants were the primary concern for Yamamura initially. The post-top bollards that light the outdoor dining areas used 85W high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps. The HPS lamps had to be replaced on a monthly basis due to color shift and lamp failures, and generated significant heat.
Yamamura consulted with Elliot Okamura, president of Team Going Green, who suggested LED alternatives for the outdoor area. Yamamura said, "Elliot introduced me to the latest in LED lighting from Light Efficient Design."
Okamura recommended 20W LED-8039 LED retrofit lamps designed to replace HID lamps for the bollards. The lamps have an E26 screw base and a cylindrical shape. The LEDs emit around the cylinder and from the flat area at the top of the cylinder. The lamps include driver electronics and have a system efficacy in the 71–75 lm/W range, and deliver 1500 lm. Light Efficient Design rates the lamps for 50,000 hours of use and offers a five-year warranty.
The low-bay lights mounted under the eaves of the buildings and lighting walkways are also easy initial targets. The restaurants used 129W metal-halide (MH) lights for the walkways. Okamura recommended 52W LED-8025 retrofit lamps. Those products also have an E26 base and deliver more than 3000 lm with an efficacy of 60 lm/W. Yamamura said, "This light now highlights my entire restaurant and showcases the beauty of this upscale McDonlad's."
"From bollards to low-bay utility lamps, these retrofit solutions save time and money," said Yamamura. "What we've implemented so far is saving approximately $19,590 a year on my electric bill with no maintenance for five years."
The success with the initial project has Yamamura planning to upgrade the lighting at all of his restaurants including indoor projects. The team is planning to install Light Efficient Design's LED-6116 4-ft LED tubes and LED-1011 A-19 lamps indoors.
