The Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC), one of the largest convention centers in the Midwest, is committed to reducing its energy usage by a total of 31% by 2015. Retrofitting the lighting in its exhibition area from traditional lighting sources to LED is a large contributor towards meeting this energy savings goal.
The previous lighting system in the MCC’s Exhibition Hall A, the first area of the MCC to be retrofitted, included 418 metal halide light fixtures operating an average of 4,380 hours per year and 622 halogen incandescent light fixtures operating an average of 800 hours per year resulted in more than 1,080,000 kilowatthours (kWh) of energy consumed. At an average utility cost of $0.09/kWh, MCC was spending approximately $97,000 per year to illuminate this exhibition area, not to mention the higher costs of maintenance and cooling costs commonly associated with metal halide and halogen lighting systems.