World’s Largest LED Retrofit Will Cut Chase Bank’s Lighting Bill In Half
GE Reports, February 18, 2016. Image credit: M.O. Stevens
Banking is about to get brighter. In a deal amounting to the largest single installation of LED lights in history, some 5,000 Chase branches will replace indoor light bulbs and fluorescent tubes and outdoor lamps with over 1.4 million energy-efficient LEDs. The project will cover a projected 25 million square feet of retail banking space in total, an area nearly 40 times the size of the Louvre. The work will begin in the coming months and is expected to finish by the end of 2017.
Current, the digital distributed energy startup created by GE that will supply and install the technology, estimates the LEDs will lower the branches’ lighting-related energy use by half. “The world is moving to LEDs,” said Jaime Irick, chief commercial officer at Current. “Chase sees us as trusted advisors helping make that move.”
The project represents a major milestone for Current, which GE launched in October 2015. The startup’s ultimate goal is to reduce electricity costs and increase grid stability by deploying smart LEDs, on-site power production, advanced batteries and other technologies. These separate components will talk to one another through Predix, GE’s cloud-based predictive analytics software platform.
For the bank, the deal comes down to economics. The price of LEDs is rapidly dropping, and they use much less energy than incandescent light bulbs. The fact that they can last up to 50,000 hours also reduces maintenance costs over much shorter-lived lighting. As a result, usage of LEDs is expected to grow from 28 percent today to 95 percent by 2025.
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