GE Lighting Solutions has supplied LED lighting to Marriott International’s headquarters located in Bethesda, MD. Marriott launched the retrofit project in internal and exterior areas in 2006 
, seeking LEED certification for the 30-year-old facility. The project expects an energy saving and maintenance costs of more than $120,000 per year. Security and energy savings are expected to amount to 860,000 kilowatt hour (kWh) reduction in electricity use.

Security and energy savings were top priorities when considering new lighting to cover the nearly two million square feet (45 acres) of parking and garage space at Marriott headquarters. After testing competitive exterior garage fixtures, parking lot lights and contemporary post tops, Marriott selected GE’s family of high-efficiency Evolve LED lighting systems.

The outdoor lots are lit by more than 230 Evolve LED area lights, while inside the parking deck nearly 400 Evolve LED garage light fixtures and several Evolve LED tunnel lights are used in addition to efficient GE T8 fluorescent lamps. Collectively, a 280W reduction per outdoor lighting fixture is expected to reduce electricity use by 580,000 kWh/yr, equating to $70,000 in utility cost savings.

Marriott is also using dimming in the garage lighting by utilizing motion sensors and GE’s ProSys lighting control system. When the garage is vacant, light output is reduced by 60% and adjusts to 100% when motion is detected. The controls alone are expected to produce nearly $11,000 in energy savings (88,000-kWh reduction) each year. The control system also interfaces with Marriott’s video surveillance center, alerting guards to after-hours movement in the deck and focusing the nearest security camera to where motion is detected.

Inside the eight floor, 900,000 square foot headquarters building, GE replaced 1000 65W incandescent bulbs with 7W LED PAR20 lamps in all hallways. The 58W difference will deliver a nearly $18,000 difference (150,000-kWh savings) in electricity expense over 261 working days