Energy-Efficient Lights Save Downtown Merchant Thousands

Lee Mullen likes to keep a copy of his shop's February 2010 Progress Energy bill handy.

It's most powerful to see how much the electric bill drops after replacing all the lights in his downtown store with LED bulbs, Mullen said. The numbers don't lie. 

"You can talk all you want, but when you actually see proof," said Mullen, owner of Lasting Impressions Engraving and Gifts, as he walked over to retrieve his old bill.

The City of Dunedin recently recognized Mullen's efforts with its 2012 Environmental Advocate Award during an April 18 commission meeting. 

Mullen invested about $4,800 and three months of tweaking to install all of the energy-efficient lighting inside his 1,200-square-foot Main Street storefront (but technology has come a long way since he converted his lights). Mullen worked closely with his local commercial lighting company to get everything just right for his store's needs, but it was well-worth it, he said.

The evidence is right there in his 2010 energy bill.

The bill shows that a year before installing energy-efficient lighting, his store burned 56 kilowatt hours a day at a cost of $287 in February 2009.

After all the LED lights were installed, Lasting Impressions used 15 kilowatt hours at a cost of $83, according to the February 2010 bill. 

The lights paid for themselves in 16 months, he said.

With another eight to 10 years life expectancy on the bulbs, the savings will keep rolling in, he said. And not just on his energy bill. Pinellas County workers told him with so much less heat coming off the new bulbs, his air conditioner's lifespan could double.

What's more for Mullen, is he feels he's doing his part to reduce the country's dependency on oil. His shop's energy-efficient lights conserve between 750 to 1,000 barrels of oil annually, he reasoned.

It's not enough for people to "flap their gums" about reducing oil dependency, Mullen said. "Do something!" 

This is something that can be done now, while the general public waits for the federal government and other emerging technologies, Mullen said.

"This technology has been out there," he said. "People just need to understand it."

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