This Neighborhood Market in Wichita, Kan., is illuminated almost entirely by LED.
Drop in to our new stores in Wichita, Kan., and you can be part of our experiment. In October, we opened two Neighborhood Markets that were identical – except that one is lighted almost entirely by LED.
We’ve pushed hard on LED in parking lots and freezer cases, but a sales floor lighted entirely by LED was a first for Walmart in the U.S. We opened twin stores in Wichita on the same day: One was lit by standard fluorescent lighting and the other by LED.
We wanted to know: Would customers notice the difference, and if they did, would they be less likely to go to the LED store if the products looked different in that lighting?
LED lighting over the produce section of a recently opened Neighorhood Market in Wichita, Kan.
The Wichita stores gave us a direct comparison in the same city – and in the end, it’s clear that the average customer does not know the difference. The only thing they notice is that the products look great.
LED is one of the many technologies we are testing at Walmart as we work to one day be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. We are also piloting solar, wind, fuel cells, off-site generation, green power purchases and a lot more.
When it comes to renewables, technologies require experimentation, investment and a lot of patience. Right now, LED has a dramatically higher start-up cost – about three and a half times as much as standard lighting. LED also has lower maintenance costs, a much longer life span and can operate more than 50 percent more efficiently than fluorescent illumination. And as we discovered in Wichita, it works just as well for customers.
Walmart is now testing LED in several of our 27 markets. China has led the way with prototype LED sales floors, and in 2011, we also opened an LED-lighted store in Acapulco, Mexico.
LED-lighted store in Acapulco, Mexico.
Last year, we also retrofitted six of our distribution centers in the U.S. with interior LED lighting. To date, we have installed 18,261 LED fixtures in eight distribution centers, which will reduce energy use by an estimated 16 million kilowatt hours in 2012. That’s the equivalent of powering more than 1,300 American homes for a year.
Today, practically every new parking lot we build around the world is lit with LEDs, and most of our markets have adopted LED freezer case lighting.
To show you just how quickly things are changing: Walmart worked with General Electric to create LED freezer case lighting and, in 2005, it was installed for the first time in our store in McKinney, Texas. Seven years later, it is our standard around the globe and it is becoming the industry norm.
We’re excited about LED, but like with most renewable-energy sources, it will take more testing, innovation and time for costs to come down. We will keep bringing new technology to market, because as we like to say at Walmart, we are working toward a day when people do not have to choose between renewable energy and affordable energy.
DEAR SIR, WE WAS VERY LUCKY THAT WE GOT TO MEET MR SAM , HE WAS A GREAT MAN WE BOUGHT STOCK IN 1984 AND IT HAS DONE VERY WELL,THIS IS OUR FIRST TIME GOING TO THE GREEN ROOM , WE CAN NOT BELIVE WALL MART IS DOING SO MUCH I LOVE READYING ALL THIS INFO ABOUT WALL MART ,[ MY LITTLE SAYING IS ,IF WALL MART OR SAM;S CLUB DOESN;T HAVE IT WE DON;T NEED IT ,] WE LOVE SHOPPING AT WALL MART AND SAMS CLUBS , MR SAM WOULD NOT BELEVE HOW MUCH THE COMPANY HAS GOTTEN SO LARGE JUST KEEP THE GOOD WORK UP, THANKS BLESSING TO ALL, WE JUST OLD HILL BILLIES FROM MAYVIEW MO,
So, what’s the bottom line? Do LEDs save “MONEY” over ten years (including start-up costs) or not?
That’s a good question. LED’s save a lot of energy and last longer than standard lightbulbs. In fact, the LED lights in our parking lots reduce energy needs by more than 50 percent and maintenance costs by more than 30 percent compared to traditional HID parking lot lights. And LED lights in our parking lots only need to be replaced every ten years, instead of the two year lifespan of traditional lights. These lights are good for consumers too. You can read more about LED lights and their benefits for the holiday season here. Thanks for reading the blog!
LED are great. We were first to be 99% CFL at our house, then when LED were available, we jumped in. Luckily a local hardware chain store put the LED bulbs on clearance for $5 a bulb. We bought 30 bulbs, and now only our stove and microwave do not have LED bulbs. We lowered our overall electric bill by about $35 a month, and have several lights that we do not ever turn off any more. In our Kitchen alone we when from 700 watts incandescent to 250 watts FCL (ok lighting bulbs burn out or yellow light) to less then 100 watts LED white and bright. We use the LED outside in fixtures that are protected since the LED are not affected by the cold where the CFL would fail. There are very few issues with the LED bulbs, they don’t fail like the CFL, the newer ones don’t have the flicker or any of the issues that CFL have.
If you are talking about the store at Maize and Central in Wichita, KS I disagree. The place is a dungeon. We won’t be back there.
Bravo for initiating this experiment. It seems the results point toward LEDs being a cost-effective alternative. My house is close to 100% LED lit now and we could not be happier for the lower electric bills as well as not looking forward to changing lamps for perhaps 20 years (residential lights are not on nearly as much as commercial lights). I hope to see more stores offering LED lighting in the future. The move is picking up steam and I suspect in ten years we’ll see nothing else except for special applications.
Is there repercussions from the conversion to energy efficient lighting? If the LED lights have to be replaced every ten years instead of two, less man hours are required for maintenance of the lights. Less man hours translate into less employment.