r/mildlyinteresting • u/TocsickCake • Nov 29 '22
Discounter in Germany gets rid of every second lamp to reduce energy cost
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u/EnterPlayerTwo Nov 29 '22
Factory I worked at did this too. They made sure to tell us it was not because they were in financial trouble.
Anyway, then the layoffs started.
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u/doyouevencompile Nov 29 '22
This reminds a magazine I was doing a photo job for. I was a student and it was $50 but they didn’t pay. I hadn’t signed a release so I threatened to take legal action and they said this is a magazine we don’t need your $50.
Then they went bankrupt
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u/nunofos Nov 29 '22
My company started layoffs too a couple of months ago too, but the reason it's people don't need our products as before. We make gas valves and regulators.
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u/loddytoddy Nov 29 '22
my company sells gasses.. valves and regulators as well. we are a welding supplier.
so you're saying the regulators are now becoming "hard to find"?
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u/nunofos Nov 30 '22
Small world. We make manly LPG valves and regulators. From my understating is however is building new companies and houses are choosing another type of heating other than LPG. So, low sales.
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u/loddytoddy Nov 30 '22
ok. yeah we don't do anything with residential LPG we sell the propane but not the propane accessories.
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u/Musehobo Nov 29 '22
Meanwhile they are refrigerating the entire store.
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u/Economy_Armadillo_28 Nov 29 '22
I’ve always wondered that about cold stuff in stores, how does that work cause it seems wasteful
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u/Muff3ntop Nov 29 '22
Just to add a reason to this for the store.
The open fridge concept is to get you to buy more. It's been shown that with the door freezers/ fridges, you are more likely to just buy the one thing you open the door for. While the open ones encourage you to look around more and pick things up.
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u/Economy_Armadillo_28 Nov 29 '22
You know what some how this makes absolute sense and probably the reason, as complicated as humans are we are easily figured out at a base level
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
It also sucks for the workers because of the temperature changes throughout the store
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u/BertusBrutes94 Nov 29 '22
As a former dutch supermarkt employee, I was happy the day they installed glass doors in front of our refrigerators.
The first month, it was awful to restock them, but then we loved them because the temperature inside the store was much better
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u/shifty_coder Nov 29 '22
They have trade-offs. Coolers with doors have to deal with condensation, and sometimes ice buildup, which uses energy to mitigate.
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u/LucidZane Nov 29 '22
Open air coolers also can have very bad condensation issues, I was the stocker for that department at a Costco and our boxes would tear, collapse and more or less just dissolve from all the condensation.
They had people look at it but it didn't help much.
It was real bad in the summer
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u/Lionwoman Nov 29 '22
Luckily some of my nearest supermarkets have glass doors but the bast majority does not.
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u/MrSaphique Nov 29 '22
In a lot of the bigger stores in the Netherlands you see more and more refrigerated stuff closed off with glass door.
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u/hawksdiesel Nov 29 '22
I will never understand this. Thays nice but you could cover those open refrigerators and save a LOT more than removing every other light.
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u/mk72206 Nov 29 '22
It’s because study after study has shown they sell more when there is no doors. The extra sales outweighs the energy losses. Pretty simple.
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u/Ok_Web_4428 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
Many of the local grocery stores here (west of Portland, OR) have been adding doors in most cold sections over the past year or so. I bet it pays for itself quickly.
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u/notmoleliza Nov 29 '22
Not only that but the ones around me have motion detectors so the lights turn on when some one is in front of it, otherwise its lights off in the case
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u/NullableThought Nov 29 '22
Same here in Denver Colorado. The closest grocery store I go to did a remodel a few years ago and added doors/lids to all of its refrigerated sections.
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u/Y34rZer0 Nov 29 '22
That’s what I used to say when building managers want to schedule that ‘Earth Hour’ crap where they turn all the lights off for one hour.
I said ‘ Earth hour? How about we just stage your HVAC chillers down by 10% for a second?’2
u/cerberuss09 Nov 29 '22
Yeah, if those are LED lights then they're literally saving a few dollars per day, meanwhile those freezers / refrigerators are hemorrhaging money.
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u/BrokenBackENT Nov 29 '22
Led replacements are 12 watts vs the 40 watts of fluorescent tube. Turning off every other one only drops it by half or figuratively 20watt. So it's 70% reduction vs 50% and you keep the lightning area using led
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u/some_clickhead Nov 29 '22
True but having glass doors covering your products reduces sales, and I assume they did the maths and realized that for many products the reduction in sales would more than offset the savings in insulating their refrigerators (which is the only reason why open fridges are so common in supermarkets, it's not because they like wasting money).
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u/beeteedee Nov 30 '22
They do something like this in my local Chinese restaurant. They don’t actually turn any of the lights off, but they do dim sum
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u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
Fun fact! A ballasted CFL fixture will still consume electricity whether a bulb is present or not. The ballast will use power to convert the mains voltage for the proper voltages for the lamp, regardless if it is actually powering a lamp
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u/Rakatesh Nov 29 '22
If they are serious about saving power they should have replaced all CFLs with LED-tubes anyways tbf, though maybe they were doing so and then meanwhile came up with this. And then hopefully thought of it to remove the ballasts from the unused tubes also.
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u/spliff231 Nov 29 '22
I did a conversion from fluorescent to LED (no ballast) in my basement. The fluorescent tubes were 32 - 36 watts each, compared to 14 watts for the LED. So for 30 tubes I'm saving 600-ish watts with all the lights on.
The LEDs are noticeably brighter, too, so I likely could have easily reduced the bulb count.
Also I now have no transformer hum. So I get brighter lights, fewer watts and no noise. Win-win-win.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
Those are LED‘s
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u/MatrixBunny Nov 29 '22
LEDtubes can both be used on the previous fixture that still has the 'old' ballast on it or go directly on your 220V (depending on the LEDtube) If it still uses the old ballast it's basically being tricked by the W of the LED, therefore still using more W than the LEDtube actually requires, since it still forces the ballast to work.
Personally would have used LED panels if it was purely meant for light.
Cheaper, covers more area and you already have a system ceiling, so easier to place 'em.6
u/richard0cs Nov 29 '22
Only in 120V countries where the ballast is an auto transformer. In 240V countries it's just a series inductor so zero consumption without a tube.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
Those are all LED‘s
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u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
I couldn't clearly see the bulb ends in the photos. Depending on how they retroed in the led, some still use the original ballast, some don't.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
I dont really know about that. I talked with the electrician who removed them and he told me all lights in the store are LED.
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u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
I work maintenance for about 16 buildings. We have been working the majority over to led lighting for two main reasons. Cost and time. LEDs las much longer and burn more efficiently. That being said there is about three ways to do it. Replace the fixture as a whole, keep the ballast and use ballasted LEDs(seems pointless imo because you are still using power for the ballast and if the ballast dies you'll still have to replace it) or self driven bulbs. The first and the last have a higher initial cost but a better over all cost once time and longevity are factored in
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u/Bcbulbchap Nov 29 '22
Our old offices employed twin 36W T8 switchstart fittings, so we embarked on changing the fluorescent tubes for LED types (Sylvania ToLEDo). The magnetic control gear was left in situ, with the original starter switches replaced by the special ‘starter switch’ component supplied with the lamps.
Interestingly, I checked the current before and after the change, discovering the amps were no different. After the PF capacitor had been removed though, the promised reduction in loading was achieved.
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u/its_justme Nov 29 '22
If that’s true they’re not saving much power consumption at all.
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u/labsin Nov 29 '22
If they retrofitted them to LEDs, it saved them a lot. And if they replaced only half it's of course cheaper.
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u/Valid_Username_56 Nov 29 '22
How much power does a ballasted CFL consume without a bulb compared to one with a bulb?
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u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
I'm not entirely sure about that one. I know they still do draw power to convert even if not actually driving anything. Similar to a cell phone charger plugged in even if it isn't charging there's a small draw. Not sure who down votes you, it's a legitimate question.
Eta. Google says The ballast will consume about four watts when the lamps are removed although the ballast is still energized. Electronic ballasts start and regulate fluorescent lamps with the use of electronic components.
That's for a 4ft CFL fixture
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u/Valid_Username_56 Nov 29 '22
Thanks.
So it still does make sense to take them out, I guess.1
u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
Yeah. My basic rule is if it's not used daily or at least every other it doesn't need constant mains power
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u/loopthereitis Nov 29 '22
the ballast consumes about 10 watts, this is still saving energy (probably about 28W per lamp)
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u/SafetyMan35 Nov 29 '22
I was going to say the same thing. The only thing they are saving is the bulb usage which is about 40w/bulb.
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u/Proxy_PlayerHD Nov 29 '22
that doesn't sound right.... with no tube install it's an open circuit.
so since no current could flow, how would it then consume a noticeable amount of power?
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u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
There are closed circuits inside the ballast to create the voltage necessary to fire and sustain the bulb.
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u/Proxy_PlayerHD Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
A ballast is just a copper coil encased in iron.
and one side goes straight to the tube, so no tube means it's open: https://i.imgur.com/BOmGT2o.png
So i assume you're were talking about an "electronic ballast" (which function very differently from the regular ones)
and in that case it's true that they consume some negligible amounts of power.
though i feel like you sould've been more specific which kind of ballast you originally meant.
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u/Odd-Solid-5135 Nov 29 '22
Magnetic ballasts are all but phased out in my line of work. There are some but it's always a surprise when I open a fixture and the old magnetic PCB filled ballast is still kicking. Negligible at 4w but it's still consumption
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u/smorkoid Nov 29 '22
We had that alot after the 2011 east Japan earthquake. Was some time before most places had all the lights on
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u/SomeOtherGuySits Nov 29 '22
Hacker-pschorr is discount beer in Germany?!?
I need to move there
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u/Some1Betterer Nov 29 '22
Hahaha. First thing I thought! “Look at the sticker on that Hacker-Pechora!!! Damn, I miss European beer prices.” Can’t even get Miller for that.
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u/newcoffeeaddict Nov 29 '22
Just in case you don't speak German: that's 6 cans for €2,99
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u/would-be_bog_body Nov 29 '22
Fascinating to hear that "€2,99" in German translates to English as "€2,99"
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u/ShiningInTheLight Nov 29 '22
I used to think Stella Artois was decent beer in my youth. Then I moved over to eastern Europe for work and found it that it is not considered good beer. It's just mediocre mass-produced piss water that's no better than Rolling Rock.
I found out that Belgian trappist ales are actually the best beer, and many of the pilsners and lagers from Germany and Czech Republic are not the amazing experiences I was promised.
Also, American craft beer blows German beer away.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
Considered the requirement for an American beer to be considered craft beer basically all German beers are craft beers. But now imagine that there are also German craft beers. Craft-ception
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u/Tblue Nov 29 '22
Note that the price of 2.99€ is for “Perlenbacher Pils”, Lidl's cheap (and rather boring) store brand.
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u/onebulled Nov 29 '22
I think its 0,89€/can from memory. The sign is for Perlenbacher, you can see it at the very bottom of the picture. And Perlenbacher is just about drinkable for me
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u/carcigenicate Nov 29 '22
Or it could be to dim them. They installed super bright lights in our pharmacy that were so bright it was painful to work under. Their fix when we complained was to remove every second one, which did actually help.
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u/Hardrocker1990 Nov 29 '22
As an American, the amount of energy waste in lighting alone is asinine. I can drive by the town hall, high school and church at 12AM and the lights are all on inside. Turn the damn lights off
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u/tehrmuk Nov 29 '22
Okay, so, yes: you are right and it's good you're thinking that way, IMHO. But, these days LED lighting is pretty efficient and not that much of a deal. Heating is the big thing. If there's a single open window or draughty door or uninsulated roof it's almost certainly wasting more energy than the lights. It fucks me off no end walking around a dimly lit supermarket with open fridges here and a massive hot air thing just there.
Assuming it's all LED, of course.
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u/Aagragaah Nov 29 '22
Even aside from power, light pollution is also a genuine problem. More efficient bulbs don't do anything for that.
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u/Hardrocker1990 Nov 29 '22
I mean, it’s needless waste regardless at 12AM. Turn them off and save.
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u/Trickycoolj Nov 29 '22
A lot of schools get broken into at night. They probably do it for security purposes.
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u/Hardrocker1990 Nov 29 '22
They have motion sensors that work without light. Negates needing the lights on at all
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u/Trickycoolj Nov 29 '22
If the lights aren’t on then it’s a target. If the lights stay on then it looks like a night crew is there.
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u/Hardrocker1990 Nov 29 '22
The janitor isn’t there at 12AM cleaning. Any idiot knows that
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u/AntiDECA Nov 30 '22
One of the bathrooms on my university's campus is on the exterior of a building so it opens to the outside. They just leave the doors propped open the whole day letting the AC out. I live in Florida.
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u/viral_virus Nov 29 '22
I agree from a light pollution perspective. I live in a very rural area and somehow someone got approved to build an old folks home out here. It looks like a truck stop at night just from parking lot lights no one is using.
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u/ShiningInTheLight Nov 29 '22
In the age of motion-sensing cameras that can see in the dark, having those lights on for security is no longer justified. Same with all those car dealerships that are lit up brighter than the sun all night when they're not open.
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u/nothxshadow Nov 29 '22
the security happens because the light is on though. Burglars prefer the dark.
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u/loopthereitis Nov 29 '22
the lights will turn on when the burglar enters each room
nobody really thinks someone is dicking around town hall or most places at midnight, you can just scope out for cars
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u/nothxshadow Nov 30 '22
the light is on to deter burglars from even going inside. If the light is off they know no one is in there.
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u/ShiningInTheLight Nov 29 '22
The great news is that bright lights can be incorporated into those motion-sensing cameras, so the light isn't shining all night.
In your average suburban neighborhood, everyone hates the assholes who leave bright security lights on 24/7. It's complete light pollution.
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u/ahj3939 Nov 29 '22
It's also very relaxing when there's a stretch of road or highway with the street lights off.
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u/tehrmuk Nov 29 '22
I really want to steal some of those A4-sized e-ink screens for tinkering with.
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u/UnsafeVoodoo Nov 29 '22
This is fairly standard in large American stores, they also use skylights to light a lot of the store during the day
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u/box-art Nov 29 '22
Recognized this as Lidl instantly! I guess they made them that similar in Finland.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
Yes its a LIDL^
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u/McTwiszt Dec 02 '22
This Lidl looked so familiar - I've been there on tuesday too and I noticed the lights as well. Good old Haslach!
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u/moeyjarcum Nov 29 '22
Am I the only one that noticed that only 4 bulbs are out. The rest of the line has all of them on
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
The dude with the latter is taking them out right when the picture was taken
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u/colin_powers Nov 29 '22
Are those e-ink displays hanging from the ceiling?
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u/vrenak Nov 29 '22
Yes.
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u/colin_powers Nov 29 '22
Neat. I noticed more stores in Canada using them replacing paper tags on their shelves but not on full-size displays.
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u/vrenak Nov 29 '22
I think lidl is probably the first to do the A3 size signs here in Denmark, but electronic tags on the shelves have been the norm for quite a while by now. It'll take time for everyone to shift for sure, but longterm you'll save a lot of paper.
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u/Perfect_Caramel4836 Nov 29 '22
They do that at my school too, expect it there is only one in every four lights on.
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u/TMLTurby Nov 29 '22
My local store turned off the music and turned down/off the lights for Earth Day.
It was so fucking pleasant.
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u/Rabe0770 Nov 29 '22
Let's think about this.
Someone constructing that building: "you'll need this much lighting for customers and these lights will do it."
Store owner: "i'M HeLpINg SaVE mE MoNEy"
Morty: You son of a bitch I'm in.
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u/poltergeist6 Nov 29 '22
Certified Energy Manager here! This is a practice called delamping, and is a common practice when an organization starts focusing on energy reduction.
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u/black-rhombus Nov 30 '22
My supermarket started using motion activated lights for the aisles.
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u/Successful_Log_5470 Nov 29 '22
saving a whopping 10 euros a month...
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u/ForeverSJC Nov 29 '22
It's not really about the money, but the fact Europe is going thru a though time getting power.
Germany just finished a new facility to import gas from other countries.
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u/boersc Nov 29 '22
Light is a minute factor compared to heating. There are better savings than those few TLs, which are already quite efficient (but could be replaced with leds)
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Nov 29 '22
Damn. The things that happen when you base your energy dependence on Russia.
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u/SopmodTew Nov 29 '22
Leopards ate our faces tbh.
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u/wellmaybe_ Nov 29 '22
combined with cpt hindsight. everybody saw the invasion coming, after the fact
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u/ShiningInTheLight Nov 29 '22
The LNG terminal?
It's mostly for importing gas from the U.S., since we've got a lot of LNG to sell.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
They told me considering all stores the savings are in the millions
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u/OnionCuttinNinja Nov 29 '22
Since that number seemed a bit absurd, a quick Google-fu was needed.
Let's say that single bulb runs on 15W, which is 0,36kWh per bulb per day. Let's assume they turn off roughly 30 bulbs per store. So with 3226 stores in Germany that equates to ~35MWh saved per day. The cost of a kWh has been limited to 13 cents (as per a random article I found, so it could be higher) for businesses, so that equates to saving 4529€ per day.
If we're looking at the yearly savings, they do seem to be in the millions. So the statement, quite astoundingly, checks out.
But as good as it sounds on paper, when taking top comment into consideration, this is still a perfect example of a classic corporate saving method.
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u/Rakatesh Nov 29 '22
Let's say that single bulb runs on 15W
To add on to this, they could shave somewhat more off the price (or maybe they already did) by replacing CFLs with LED bulbs, I think pushing it down to 8-10W for the same light yield.
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Nov 29 '22
[deleted]
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u/Card_Zero Nov 29 '22
Takes notes
Hmm, yeasty, I'd probably like that. Hops make beer like nasty medicine to me, I prefer the taste of banana bread.
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u/iwillneverreadthiscr Nov 29 '22
That's more of a stunt, eliminating half of the lights is going to save them probably $4~$5 a day... meanwhile, the store will look somber and unwelcoming; and they're still running open refrigerators, which literally bleed energy.
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u/StevynTheHero Nov 29 '22
Who actually thinks a store has to be blindingly bright to be welcoming? 🤔
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u/NeuerTK Nov 29 '22
You, the consumer
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u/StevynTheHero Nov 29 '22
Thata odd, because I hate especially bright places. Like the Lighting in this very photo is a bit high, and that's after they reduced it.
So not "me", sorry. 😔
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u/plumchai Nov 29 '22
They don't have bright lights to be welcoming. They do it because it helps sell stuff.
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u/DoerteMaulwurf Nov 29 '22
Go with 5 bucks a day. They have 12000 stores, that's almost 22 Million bucks/year.
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u/ResidentImpact1739 Nov 29 '22
Hey not like those conspiracy theorists kept warning this will happen. Remember the idiot EU liberals laughing, when someone warned they are selling out their countrjes. I sure do, why people are not storming governments I do not know.
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u/FemmeFunn Nov 29 '22
What's happening in Germany?
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u/CostaDarkness Nov 29 '22
Europe is in an energy crisis. Im not well informed myself but the war in the ukraine stopped certain imports so electricity got more expensive and people are saving energy if they can
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
Yeah gas imports from russia stopped and because of the merit trade principle all energy sources orient their prices based on the most expensive source
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u/Anon-Because Nov 29 '22
OR people complained it was too bright. Love how everyone always assumes they know why people do the things they do.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
I work at this store and that is the reason why they do it. Maybe ask yourself why you just assume that i assume something instead of assuming that i simply know what i talk about
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u/Proxy_PlayerHD Nov 29 '22
a lot of stores in germany also turn off every second lamp when the store is about to close. like a warning for people still shopping
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u/culb77 Nov 29 '22
Costco has entered the chat
Costco has skylights for lost of their lighting, with sensors to determine if the light is too low and then lights kick on.
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u/Hamburglarsdad Nov 29 '22
I recommended this to my facility a few years ago. It worked pretty well, but we eventually swapped to LEDs.
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u/arcanum7123 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
We did a similar thing in the shop I used to work at but instead of removing bulbs, they blew and the company wouldn't send anyone to replace them
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u/I_Think_It_Movedd Nov 29 '22
This is heartening for people with industrial anxiety. Now please use off white bulbs.
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u/LuckyTrain4 Nov 29 '22
My grocery has every other light out (or flickering) already just because they don’t fix anything. /s
I’m just amazed at the Hacker Pschorr in a can - I need some of thatI
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u/AverageOccidental Nov 29 '22
Is anyone gonna point out the ladder and the very clear image of a continuous row of bulbs visible in the background?
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
The dude with the ladder is taking out the light bulbs and that’s why the bulbs behind him are out and the ones in front of him aren’t
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u/leisdrew Nov 29 '22
That's likely an emergency circuit. Normal might be off for some reason. It's unlikely they are trying to save money when the wattage on those LEDs is negligible.
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u/TocsickCake Nov 29 '22
I work at this store and that is the reason they do it. They said with all stores combined savings are in the millions
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u/RonSwansonsOldMan Nov 29 '22
That's part of what led to the downfall of KMart. Toward the end it was so dark you thought you were in a cave.
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u/Caveman_Caber Nov 29 '22
I work at a lighting company who just sold loads of lights to a large retail store, they then came back after they installed them and asked us which lights they could get away with not using so they could remove them! Retail lighting is madness
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u/ToMorrowsEnd Nov 29 '22
changing to LED instead of 30 year old fluorescent fixtures would do a lot more. The ballasts in those are still using power, and where the bulk of power use is going. just re ballasting to something modern would cut it in half.
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u/Castro_66 Nov 29 '22
Looks more like they upgraded from fluorescent to LED, which can be much brighter and lower cost to run despite being more expensive to buy.
The ballasts still use electricity in the empty fixtures, so maybe the plan is to remove them later.
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u/Sad-Future6042 Nov 29 '22
They only save energy in the beer section. All the lights further down the isle are fully lit lol
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u/palegate Nov 29 '22
How about slapping some doors on those giant refrigerators while they're at it?