Valley
Wine Warehouse Toasts Energy Savings
The
Business
Valley Wine Warehouse takes care of the “liquid assets” for
110 wineries by storing more than one million cases of wine in a temperature-controlled
environment. After sales are made, warehouse workers maneuver through
the 250,000 square foot warehouse and fill the orders of wine so that
they ’re “ready to roll” onto trucks for nationwide
distribution.
The
Challenge
Light and heat are the natural enemies of wine, but, ironically, the lights
rarely went out at Valley Wine Warehouse. The high bay metal halide lamps
that lit the cavernous warehouse had two distinct disadvantages: slow
start-up times (up to eight minutes) and a limited ability to work with
motion sensors. As a result, the continuously burning high bay lights,
which were causing the electric bill to soar, were affecting both the
wine’s quality and the warehouse’s bottom line.
The
Solution
The Small Business Energy Alliance replaced inflexible, energy-guzzling
400-Watt metal halide lamps with energy-efficient, high output T-5 lamps
with
motion sensors. The T-5 lamps are 40% more efficient than the energy-guzzling
metal halides and work effectively with motion sensors. Now, instead of
leaving the lights burning for 20 hours a day, the lights come on only
when needed.
The
Savings
The wine is in the dark but the Valley Wine Warehouse has seen the light
of more than $37,000 in annual savings. What’s more, the warehouse
expects to see a reduction in energy use to maintain the warehouse’s
60° temperature because the T-5 lamps generate less heat than the
metal halides.
The
Bottom Line
Since the Small Business Energy Alliance’s Energy Savers Program
paid for 50% of the installation cost with state-sponsored energy efficiency
funding, the new lighting at Valley Wine Warehouse will pay for itself
in approximately one year. “The Small Business Energy Alliance has
helped us improve our operation, our client service and our bottom line,”
said Don Wittschiebe, business manager of Valley WineWarehouse.
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