It’s become common knowledge that compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs are four times more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescents and use 50 - 80% less energy. Changing incandescents bulbs to CFLs has become the go-to green effort for many. In the last few years however, LED technology has proven to be far superior to CFLs in just about every way. Where a few CFLs can provide small savings over time, LEDs can produce thousands of dollars of savings annually.

Let’s break it down:?The average life span of a CFL bulb is 8,000 hours whereas the average life span of a LED bulb is 50,000 hours. LEDs use less power (watts) per unit of light generated (lumens), about 6-8 watts, compared to LEDs that use 13-15. Right away LEDs are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by almost 50%. Regarding Kilo-watts of electricity used, LEDs only use 329KWh/year compared to CFLs that use 767 KWh/year. And finally, CFLs contain Mercury, which becomes toxic to our health and the environment if not disposed of correctly. And CO2 emissions in CFLs are 1,051 pounds per year compared to 451 pounds per year in a LED bulb.

CFLs can certainly improve energy efficiency on a small scale, but when a large scale project is required, such has lighting for tubing hills or parking lots, LEDs provide the greatest reduction in both energy usage and operational costs.

The Vail Adventure Ridge tubing hill received a complete makeover two years ago which included everything from re-grading the slope, a new conveyor lift and equally important, the lighting system. The existing lights were inefficient 250W metal halide flood lights, which increasingly became problematic. The lighting was not only inefficient, but some of the lights were impossible to serve due to their location when the tubing hill was in operation during the winter season. The halide bulbs have an indefinite lift cycle so Vail’s annual maintenance costs were extremely high in labor and parts. All bulbs were replaced each year to ensure they didn’t fail during winter.

During the renovation, Vail contracted with Colorado Lighting of Denver who recommended LED flood lights as a sustainable alternative. Twenty-four BetaLED flood lights were installed in 2011. After using them for just one season, the improvement of light quality was beyond comparison. With better optics and light focusing, the LED lights do not put out a “burst” of light like the older, metal halide lights, which had created light pollution in the valley and had been a complaint for years from local homeowners. Additionally, BetaLED luminaries have an environmental advantage in that 20 to 25% (by weight) of the fixture is made using post-consumer recycled materials (aluminum casting and extrusions) and 70% (by weight) of these fixtures are readily recyclable.

Most importantly are the cost savings. The lighting retrofit cost $50,000 with a projected ROI of five years. A reduction of 4,930 kWh and $2,519 in energy costs is the proposed annual electrical savings along with reducing annual labor, maintenance and equipment costs by $13,500. That’s over $16,000 of projected savings per year from just 24 BetaLED lights.

Tubing hills are an obvious match for LED lighting systems and produce a respectable ROI, but an even better return on investment comes when they are installed in resort parking garages due to the high runtime - 24/7/365 of most parking structures. The savings will be the greatest in these situations.