As a multi unit operator in Manhattan, our various restaurants ( Ellen's Stardust Diner, Iridium, P.J. Clarke's) have many energy challenges as it relates to the expense from Consolidated Edison.  In our Stardust Diner unit ( www.ellensstardustdiner.com ), we had 32 cans in the ceiling that were 95 watts apiece, at an average cost of $11 each.  Because the restaurant is open 24 hours a day between customer service hours and clean up, these bulbs ran virtually 24 hours a day and needed to be replaced approximately 6 times a year, at a cost of approximately $2000 per year.  The new Acolyte RGBA devices have reduced the main ceiling lighting consumption from over 3000 watts to 576 watts.  Based upon the 50,000 expected hours per device, the units themselves will be paid for just on the hardware side of things ( without considering the energy savings) in approximately 3 years.  This does not even take into consideration the dramatic effects we achieve with the simple DMX controllers on the RGBA devices.

In the Iridium Jazz Club (www.theiridium.com ), the changes are even more startling.  The famous icon of the electric guitar, Les Paul,  used to complain from the stage that he was frying under the glare of the 750 watt lamps that were pointed at him.  Aside from throwing an incredible amount of heat, we had 3400 watts being drawn into PAR 46/64 cans that were pointed at the stage.  Again, Acolyte has proved to be a huge savings as we have now dropped the total of stage bound lighting to 486 watts!  The stage is cooler, we have ten fold increase in dramatic lighting flexibility versus gels and save a ton of energy.  In addition, we replaced all of our 60 watt incandescent bulbs with the Acolyte dimmable bulbs to further reduce our consumption.

All told we have seen our electric bills drop from $21,000.00 per month to approximately id="mce_marker"8,000.00 per month in peak season.  During non peak season we have seen the same percentage reduction of cost which basically means the entire Acolyte upgrade will have paid for itself in approximately 6 months!

It is a shame that the government is constantly at loggerheads with self centered lobbyists that want to protect outdated manufacturing and technology- the incandescent lamp had a nice run of approximately 100 years.  Times change, technology moves ahead and I can say that out of all the energy and "greening" concepts that I have reviewed and implemented, the Acolyte solution is by far the most tangible, measureable, successful one I have ever implemented in my 30 years in business.  I strongly recommend this innovative company.