Gatlinburg, Tenn., reduces Winter Magic lighting costs 75 percent with LEDs (12/08)

October 2009

The Achievement

The City of Gatlinburg, Tenn., has dramatically reduced its energy costs and consumption by replacing all the incandescent bulbs used in its Gatlinburg Winter Magic lighting program to LEDs. The four-month Winter Magic attraction draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Gatlinburg each year to view the brightly colored outdoor light displays, from snowflakes and snowmen to forest animals (indigenous to nearby Great Smoky Mountain National Park) and dancing fountains.

2008-09 marked the completion of the three-year, $1.5 million-plus rollout of custom-designed LED lighting displays and conversion of existing displays. These quarter-watt LED bulbs replace the traditional 5-watt incandescent bulbs which have lit up the City’s Gatlinburg Winter Magic lights program since 1989.

The Benefits

Switching from incandescent bulbs to LEDs will pay numerous dividends over the long term. Although LEDs are more expensive than incandescents, they last far longer, require less maintenance, and draw a fraction of the power.

Thanks to LEDs, Gatlinburg slashed its Winter Magic energy bill by a whopping 75 percent: The 2005-2006 lighting costs with incandescent bulbs totaled $62,000; in 2008-2009, the bill came to only $15,476.

An even more specific example of the cost-saving power of LEDs is Gatlinburg’s cross-street chandeliers. These chandeliers included as many as 2,000 bulbs each, pulling 5 watts of energy, adding up to as much as 10,000 watts (one kilowatt) per chandelier. The City had as many as 21 of the chandeliers scattered throughout the City, most of them on the Downtown Parkway, burning 14 hours a day at a cost of $30 per day, or $3,600 during the fourth-month winter lights program.

A specific example of the cost-saving power of LEDs is Gatlinburg’s cross-street chandeliers. These chandeliers included as many as 2,000 bulbs each, pulling 5 watts of energy, adding up to as much as 10,000 watts (one kilowatt) per chandelier. The City had as many as 21 of the chandeliers scattered throughout the City, most of them on the Downtown Parkway, burning 14 hours a day at a cost of $30 per day, or $3,600 during the fourth-month winter lights program.

But now, each cross-street chandelier has been replaced by two facing LED trees mounted on street lights installed during Gatlinburg’s Undergrounding and Streetscape Project. Each pair of trees includes 1,946 LED bulbs, burning 14 hours a day at a cost of 26 cents per day. Multiplied by the 42 trees, the City is spending $1.50 per day or $180 during the 120-day Gatlinburg Winter Magic period.

Related achievements: Gatlinburg has also undertaken other extensive lighting upgrades to its infrastructure:

• The Parking Lots Department has replaced the lighting systems in two parking garage complexes. Single-bulb fixtures requiring 175-watt metal halide bulbs have been replaced by ballast fixtures of four, four-foot T8 fluorescent bulbs, providing additional lumens and more area saturation of light. The metal halide bulbs cost $19 each and needed to be replaced twice a year. The T-8 bulbs cost only $1.25 each, consume far less energy, and need to be replaced only once per year. The switch is expected to reduce energy costs by 50 percent.

• Departments in most City-owned buildings have replaced older lights with energy- and cost-saving T8 bulbs or CFL bulbs, as well as LED bulbs in exit signs.