ENTERGY MISSISSIPPI’S PROGRAM: ENTERGY SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS PRESCRIPTIVE LIGHTING

Energy Savings: 86,053 kWh/Year

Total Project Cost: $11,252

Incentives Paid: $8,728*

Cost to Customer: $2,524

Estimated Lifetime Energy Savings: 492,223 kWh

*The program now caps the incentive amount at 50% of the total project cost. If this project were done today, the incentive amount would be approximately $5,600.

A Slice of the Energy Savings PieTwo Jackson restaurateurs convert their lighting – and savor the results.Jeff Good and Dan Blumenthal are co-owners of three restaurants and a catering company in Jackson. Friends since high school, the pair opened their first business together, an Italian fine-dining restaurant called BRAVO!, in 1994 in Highland Village, an upscale lifestyle center in the heart of the state capital. Four years later, they opened the Broad Street Baking Company and Café, where a cadre of bakers prepare pastries, desserts and European-style crusty breads from scratch. Their third restaurant, Sal & Mookie’s New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint, opened in the spring of 2007. This 250-seat, full-service restaurant offers huge 18-inch pizzas along with a complete Little Italy-themed menu, an ice cream parlor and a bar. Jeff and Dan also own a catering business called Mangia Bene (“eat well” in Italian), which operates out of the three restaurants.

The OpportunityAs the managing partner, Jeff is always looking for ways to improve efficiency, including saving energy. “In retail, we have the lights on all day, driving up our energy bills each month,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of heat put out from incandescent bulbs. Plus, we’re switching burned-out bulbs all the time.”

In early 2015, a lighting vendor told Jeff about the Entergy Solutions for Business incentive program offered by Entergy Mississippi, and encouraged him to consider converting the incandescent bulbs in his restaurants to LEDs. Jeff hesitated at first, because he had sampled some LEDs years before but thought their light was too bright and the color too white/blue. Plus, there was no way to dim the lighting at night, making the bulbs incompatible with the warmly lit atmosphere he wanted in his restaurants. The vendor explained that the technology had improved since then. LEDs were now available in many shades of light and were dimmable, plus Entergy Mississippi now had a great offer.

Jeff agreed to install some trial lighting in the party room at Sal & Mookie’s and liked what he saw. “It was a no-brainer to move forward with the conversions,” he said.

Customer Spotlight: Retail Lighting Retrofit

Jeff Good, Restaurateur

Jeff took advantage of Entergy Mississippi’s incentives to convert his restaurants’ lighting to energy-saving LEDs.

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The ProjectWork began at the Sal & Mookie’s location, where the company installed about $3,300 worth of dimmable bulbs, mostly BR20 and BR30 specialty bulbs. The company ultimately switched to smaller bulbs that better projected a warm environment.

“After that, we changed many light bulbs across all our locations,” said Jeff. “We worked with our lighting vendor and electrician to select the right bulbs and install them on the right circuits to allow for proper dimming.”

All the lighting fixtures took screw-in bulbs, which allowed Jeff and his staff to install the bulbs themselves, minimizing labor costs. To avoid disrupting diners, the conversions were made after hours. At one point, 150 bulbs were scheduled to be replaced, which took a full night’s work per location. The whole lighting project was complete by August 2015.

Entergy Mississippi provided a total of $8,728 in incentives to replace inefficient lighting at each location with LEDs. “Getting the rebates was the easiest part of the project,” said Jeff. “The process was smooth and simple.”

The BenefitsEvery night, the dining room lights at Sal & Mookie’s and BRAVO! dim to a warm color that perfectly sets the mood—and yet employees and customers hardly notice, because the dimming is seamless. All the locations have reduced their power consumption, and because the LEDs give off less heat than incandescent bulbs, staff and customers are more comfortable, too.

“The Entergy Solutions for Business incentive program is especially useful for small businesses,” said Jeff. He added, “When another vendor proposed LEDs to me years ago, my partner and I couldn’t afford to purchase $10,000 worth of light bulbs. This time around, Entergy’s incentives allowed us to recoup much of the cost of the bulbs, and the energy savings will pay for the remainder.”

For More InformationVisit: entergysolutionsms.com/business Email: entergybusinesssolutions@icf.com Call: 844-523-9979

“We liked the Entergy program so much, we converted to LED lighting at every one of our business locations.”Jeff Good, Restaurateur

Twenty-foot ceilings at Sal & Mookie’s made changing light bulbs a challenge. Converting to long-lasting LEDs means the owners will not have to change a light bulb for about five years.

The owners also converted the lighting in outdoor dining areas to LEDs.

A message from Entergy Mississippi, Inc. ©2017 Entergy Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Entergy Solutions program is an energy efficiency program and not affiliated with Entergy Solutions, LLC. Authorized by the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

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