Digital Lumens notched its first publicly announced customer win this week with the claim of an 87 percent reduction in lighting energy consumption.
Maines Paper & Food Service, a New York supplier to the restaurant industry, says it installed a Digital Lumens lighting system at its Conklin headquarters in June. It anticipates saving 1.7 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year.
The public proof-point should be a boost for the Boston designer of LED fixtures that rely on wireless networking and management software to more efficiently use energy. Dozens of other customers are in commercial deployment, says CEO Tom Pincince, just not publicly announced.
Maines says it is using 484 Digital Lumens fixtures in a 460,000-square-foot warehouse. The company is taking advantage of New York State rebates and anticipates a payback on the investment of less than a year, said Patrick DeOrdio, vice president of operations.
Maines had been using 400 watt, high-pressure, high-intensity sodium fixtures. It says the energy reductions are coming from a reduced wattage draw per bulb and because fixtures can be automatically turned off when not needed.
Digital Lumens, which has raised more than $11 million of venture funding, is not the only company using networking and management technologies to reduce lighting energy consumption. Others include Redwood Systems and Adura Technologies.
According to some experts, the market has huge potential. Lighting presently accounts for about 17.5 percent of global electricity use and about 20 percent in the United States. Fixtures with LED bulbs should capture 46 percent of the $4.4 billion U.S. market for commercial, industrial and outdoor lighting by 2020, says Pike Research.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
