Martha and Martha are Saving Energy and Saving Money

The Business
Martha’s Old Mexico Grill serves modern Mexican cuisine along with old-fashioned Mexican comfort foods, such as tacos and enchiladas. Martha Lobato started the business with her cousin Martha Lopez in 1999. The “cousins of cuisine” have a combined total of more than seven decades of working in the restaurant business.

The Challenge
Lobato and Lopez quickly learned that the challenge of running a restaurant is keeping overhead low and customer satisfaction high. The poor quality of the outdated fluorescent lighting system was gobbling up profits and providing an uneven, poor quality light in the 1,000 square foot restaurant.

The Solution
The Small Business Energy Alliance retrofitted two fixtures and replaced aging fluorescent tubes with high efficiency T-8 fluorescent tubes. The new, energy saving tubes last longer (up to 30,000 hours), cast a bright, natural light and require less maintenance. What’s more, the new electronic ballasts are quiet and flicker free, unlike the old, humming magnetic ballasts.

The Outcome
Lobato said that the lighting quality is more consistent throughout the restaurant and, best of all, the new lights come on instantly, not with the “delayed reaction” she experienced with the old system.

The Savings
The projected annual savings are $860. Since state-sponsored funding from the Small Business Energy Alliance paid for half the expense, the project costs was just $275. The “cousins of cuisine” will enjoy a payback period of less than four months.

The “Whole Enchilada”
Always on the lookout for ways to reduce their energy usage and overhead, Lobato and Lopez had already replaced energy guzzling incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. “Now that we’ve updated the fluorescent system, our lighting system is 100% energy efficient,” said Lobato.

Triple Benefits
“The lighting is beautiful. We’re saving money and we’re saving energy in Sonoma County. What more could you ask for?” asked Lobato.