Largest Self-Storage Company to Save $1.9 Million with LED Lighting

October 5th, 2012 by Joshua S Hill

The world’s largest owner and operator of self-storage facilities, Public Storage, has begun swapping its existing T12HO fluorescent lamps with GE Lighting’s LED sign lighting solutions at its more than 2,000 locations, and is expecting to save up to $1.9 million as a result.

“Each property is unique. We have multiple buildings at each location that can be single-story or multi-story buildings, which has made it difficult to standardize lighting and has led to varied repair and maintenance costs throughout our portfolio,” said Robbie Williams, vice president of facilities for Public Storage. “A third party maintains our LED signage lighting, which costs up to $1,000 per year per location including energy and upkeep. We really needed to standardize lighting and maintain information in one database while reducing our costs.”

With as many as eight signs at each storage location, the costs quickly added up for Public Storage. They initially looked at swapping to T8 fluorescent lamps but chose to swap to LED sign lighting as the technology became competitively priced and the light quality improved.

“We’ve had previous experience with other LED manufacturers, and a lot are now out of business. We wanted a stable company that would be here to be a partner for the longer term. GE Lighting is a pioneer in the industry and has an excellent reputation with quality, reliable LED systems,” said Williams.

Approximately 150 locations have already been fitted with the new LED lighting systems, and the rest will be retrofitted over the next three to five years.

Each property is subsequently expecting to reduce sign lighting energy consumption by 73 percent, earning them $799 per property over five years.

Source: GE Appliances and Lighting

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Tags: GE, GE lighting, LED lighting, Public Storage

About the Author

Joshua S Hill I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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http://www.johnsonsofshaftesbury.co.uk/ John Smith

LED technology make it possible to reduce energy consumption up to 70%. So I think it is possible to save up to $1.9 million save by the use of LED technology.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  “Energy” generally includes electricity, heating and transportation.
  
  Homes use about 6% of their electricity for lighting. Business use about 38%. LED’s can reduce the amount of electricity used for lighting, but 70% of all energy is no correct.
- http://www.facebook.com/edea.krammer.3 Edea Krammer
  
  Superb! Well said! I swear you got that one right… Two thumbs up! XOXO:D
  USALEDSolutions.com
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Bob_Wallace

“(and those savings are tax free)”

How do you figure that?

My math says that money that would have been spent on the extra electricity would have gone into the loss column. That would have reduced taxes.

Income not spent on expenses is called “profit”. And profits are taxed.
- T Adkins
  
  Have to go with BW on this, the savings if not invested in something else will be taxed as profit, but what an excellent opportunity to turn those savings into a solar investment, a business as big as Public Storage should be able to maximize the tax credit, and after going solar expand the business to more locations.
- Steven P. Mitchell
  
  Public Storage, as a REIT, does not pay any (I mean any) income taxes. They are entirely exempt.
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    Taxes will be paid. If they have adequate depreciation to cover income and hold their income tax to zero the gains will still spill out as capital gain tax later on.