Going Green Leads To No Energy Costs
Davis & Warshow, an 87-year-old family-owned business and dealer of luxury kitchen and bath fixtures and plumbing materials, has converted its entire 209,000-square-foot Maspeth distribution center from fluorescent tubes to LED lighting, the company announced.
In making the switch, Davis & Warshow reportedly boasts the largest single-facility LED tube installation with the most energy efficient lighting in watts per-square-foot in the U.S. to date. Additionally, it is the country’s first facility to achieve net-zero lighting costs with LED tubes thanks to a rooftop solar array installed in 2011 that exceeds the 200,000 annual kilowatt hours (kWh) to power the lighting.
Independence LED, a Pennsylvania based manufacturer, was the source for the more than two miles worth of LED tubes required for the Davis & Warshow retrofit. Prior to the conversion, lighting equaled nearly 65 percent of the structure’s total power usage, costing almost $50,000 per year. It now has decreased to less than 50 percent of the building’s total energy use and costs less than $20,000 per year to run- reducing the company’s lighting tab by 60 percent or nearly $40,000 a year.
According to Davis & Warshow president David Finkel, the company’s investment to convert to LED was more than $250,000. At a brief ceremony at the Maspeth headquarters last week, Con Edison executives presented Finkel with a check totaling $63,704.
“The amount represented rebates we earned for the lighting conversion based on annual kWh saved using the made-in-America fixtures,” Finkel said. “Moreover, in five years time our investment will have paid for itself, with the rebates we’ve earned and the overall energy savings.”
Both the installation of the solar array and the LED conversion are part of Davis & Warshow’s Practically Green program-a pragmatic, small-steps approach to going green that the company inaugurated in 2008.
“Our small steps are adding up to a giant leap in sustainability, and we are proof positive that even small companies like ours can make a difference in reducing their environmental footprint for the better of the planet,” added Finkel.
Earlier this year, he was honored by the Urban Green Council, New York’s chapter of the USGBC, cited as a role model in “building a greener New York.”
“We are pleased to support Davis & Warshow’s efforts to make their business more sustainable,” said David Pospisil, program manager of the Con Edison Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs who presented the five-figure rebate. “Con Edison’s incentives and rebates help businesses like Davis & Warshow make smart investments to improve the energy and environmental performance of their buildings.”
Charlie Szoradi, CEO of Independence LED who also participated in the Con Edison check presentation, added, “We are pleased to work with Davis & Warshow and applaud their vision to execute a comprehensive energy strategy. They have raised the sustainability bar. For businesses across America, the added benefits of the federal tax incentives and the offset factor of the Department of Energy’s ban on inefficient T12 fluorescent tubes lifts the return on investment (ROI) to over 30 percent. The Davis & Warshow project has set a benchmark that will earn a place in American energy history.”
