A Scaled Field Placement of Advanced Track LED Fixtures in a Grocery Environment

The project evaluated the performance of the 15W Amerlux Hornet LED fixture as a potential replacement for a variety of low voltage halogen MR16 track lighting applications in a Northern California Safeway grocery store. Given their small form factor and design, which enables them to provide a controlled spot-light effect, MR16 lamps are widely used for accent, task and display lighting in retail and gallery spaces. There are roughly 122 million MR16 lamps installed in the US, and over 98% of these are halogen lamps. These MR16 lamps consume 11,200 Gigawatt hours (GWh) per year in the US (Navigant 2011) and an estimated 544 GWh per year within Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) territory. While LED lighting has the potential to achieve significant energy savings in MR16 and other directional lighting applications, high quality LED replacement lamps and integrated LED fixtures for 35W and 50W MR16s have only recently become available (DOE 2012). The study replaced 62 50W halogen MR16 lamps and fixtures with 45 15W Amerlux Hornet integrated LED fixtures and evaluated them based on power and energy usage measurements, lighting performance characteristics, qualitative satisfaction, and economic factors. In addition, the project sought to understand the customer’s internal product selection processes and their decision to install this Hornet fixture across multiple locations.