About the Project

Lineage is a global leader in temperature-controlled storage, and it’s unsurprising that energy use is a large part of the company’s operating costs. At its cold-storage facility in Seattle, comprising three buildings totaling 214,000 square feet, the lighting was not only inefficient but also insufficient and a safety concern.

With a $99,000 financial incentive from the electric utility, Lineage retrofitted 636 fluorescent fixtures to 585 LED fixtures. This change reduced the heat generated by the old lighting, so the refrigeration system did not need to work as hard, and Lineage gained approximately one ton in cooling capacity for every kilowatt of lighting displaced. Instead of standard on/off power switches in the freezer and dock area, adjustable sensors dim the lighting to 10%, which saves energy by reducing the amount of full output light and improves safety by providing light round the clock.

The project resulted in annual energy savings of over 450,000 kWh, annual energy cost savings of $39,000 from lighting and $6,000 from the reduced cooling load, and projected maintenance savings of $10,000.