Walmart freezer cases using LEDs

Genxsis

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In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Walmart now has LEDs lighting up their freezer cases now. Way to go, Wally! I heard that they are much better for this than the flourescent bulbs they used to use. I noticed that they kept turning off every few minutes and then coming back on about a minute later. Don't know what's up with that.
 

ginaz

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they have sensors so that only the cases that need to be lit (the ones with a person looking at them) will be lit. not bad.
 

evan9162

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The cold is the perfect environment for LEDs. They're more efficient and last longer when running in cold places.

LEDs suffer no ill effects from being cycled on/off zillions of times (heck, that's exactly how PWM dimming works), so they can save even more power over the previous lighting system by being selectively shut off when not needed.
 

Khaytsus

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I think every new Wal Mart that opens does this.. There's two here in town which are new, both of which have LED-lit freezer cases.

I've not noticed that any of them turn off the lights when not needed, but I'm sure they're much more efficient because of no heat generated.

Wal Mart also does smart stuff like only using the lights required during the day and letting skylights supply some of the lighting.
 

lightr07

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Our local Walmart super center recently went under a (at least) million dollar renovation. (i.e they replaced everything, the floors, moved the deli, moved the pharmacy, replaced lighting, re-painted, moved / changed electronics, changed the exterior) and I've also noticed that they use LED's in there display cases, each freezer / refrigerator case here has 1 sensor to 3 cases, the open-front refrigerator's also have LED's with sensors. Only problem is that some of them aren't working correctly here so the LED's are getting turned on when no one is around :oops:.
 

brickbat

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The really cool thing about it, when you stop and think, is that Walmart isn't doing this because it's a 'green' thing, or they are LED geeks, like us. No, they did it because it actually results in cost savings.
 

Khaytsus

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The really cool thing about it, when you stop and think, is that Walmart isn't doing this because it's a 'green' thing, or they are LED geeks, like us. No, they did it because it actually results in cost savings.

However, in this case, green is two things for them.... It's better for the environment and the bottom line. That's a real winner for everyone.
 

Oznog

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The cold is the perfect environment for LEDs. They're more efficient and last longer when running in cold places.

LEDs suffer no ill effects from being cycled on/off zillions of times (heck, that's exactly how PWM dimming works), so they can save even more power over the previous lighting system by being selectively shut off when not needed.

Well that and fluorescents have some trouble starting in subfreezing temps. "Marginal" tubes are hard to start in the cold. Once started they'll stay warm, and perhaps they use special tubes, but the temp certainly complicates the task.
 

sdl13

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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Below is a recent statement on the energy savings for the system. The entire article can be read at http://www.wattstopper.com/newsroom/news.html?id=142. BTW the freezer lights use Luxeon.

"When examining the total energy savings for the project, the picture became even rosier. Because the LEDs use far less power than fluorescents, the connected load was reduced by 43 percent. And since the LEDs generate less heat than fluorescents, and no heat when turned off by the sensors, the compressors are not required to run as often to chill the cases using the new lighting. The overall energy savings realized by changing from uncontrolled T8 fluorescent lighting to occupancy sensor controlled LED lighting turned out to be 92 percent. These incremental savings represent close to three percent of the total energy usage of the entire supercenter store. By making this one change, Williams was ten percent of the way to the corporate goal of achieving 30 percent energy savings."

sdl13
[/FONT]
 

lyyyghtmaster

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I agree. The fluorescents waste power in several ways: light spilled into aisles due to difficulty focusing them, inefficiency if they run too cold (which is extremely difficult to control with any certainty), increases in refrigeration requirements, and needing to be left on for long periods of time to achieve acceptable lifespans. In addition, modern high-power LEDs are beginning to overtake even the most efficient fluorescents in terms of brute efficiency. At work we have an ice cream display freezer using a 7 foot T12 high output tube that probably does about 30 lumens per watt useful light into the case. :thumbsdow I was going to replace it with reflectored T5 fluorescents; after reading this thread, I'm now contemplating hooking up a bunch of CREEs, SSCs or Rebels! :thumbsup:
 

jtr1962

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In addition, modern high-power LEDs are beginning to overtake even the most efficient fluorescents in terms of brute efficiency.
At the temperatures of freezer cases fluorescent output drops dramatically. A lot of freezer cases use 4-foot 96 watt high output tubes to deliver roughly the same light as a 40 watt tube does at room temperature. In other words, the raw output of the tubes, not including losses focusing the light, is under 40 lm/W. LEDs are over twice as good at room temperature, probably 10% to 15% better at lower temperatures. Combined with the better focusing, I would estimate LEDs can cut power usage by a factor of at least three. This doesn't even include further savings from reduced cooling requirements.
 

Tritium

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Actually Wal-Mart is becoming a "Green" company. They have been buying up renewable energy certs to cover the power usage for all their Canadian Stores so far. I am sure they will follow suit in the US if they haven't already.

Thurmond
 
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