Opportunity

The Courtyard Louisville East proudly represents a distinguished brand. The first Courtyard by Marriott^® location was built in 1983 in Atlanta and was Marriott’s initial sister brand. That brand was always meant to primarily target business travelers who wanted quality service at affordable prices. Over the years though, it has come to cater to the leisure traveler as well.

A new-style lobby for Courtyard by Marriott locations across the country debuted in 2008, offering guests a variety of upscale amenities. The lobby now includes a redesigned restaurant/bar area, The Bistro, offering a variety of breakfast and dinner options, an evening bar and specialty beverages; an expanded business center area; a more modern lounge and seating area; and expanded areas for The Market, a small store in the lobby.

To showcase its beautifully redesigned lobby and maximize energy efficiency, Courtyard Louisville East went shopping for a top-shelf lighting system.

Solution

Hotel management selected Cree.

The Courtyard Louisville East lobby now features Cree CR6™ LED downlights, with each downlight consuming only 9.5 watts. Cree downlights blend beauty and performance with the same superior light quality as traditional fixtures but at a fraction of the energy used.

The lights lend an improved color quality to the new red and orange furniture, thanks to Cree TrueWhite^® Technology. This patented technology delivers high efficiency with beautiful light characteristics and color accuracy, while maintaining color consistency over the life of the product.

In all, 54 Cree CR6 LED downlights replaced 65-watt BR30 light bulbs. At up to 64 lumens per watt, the CR6 has the highest luminaire efficacy of any residential ENERGY STAR^® qualified downlight.

Fifteen Cree LBR-30™ LED lamps, which use only 12 watts, went into the lobby, replacing 65-watt BR30s. Also powered by Cree TrueWhite^® Technology, Cree lamps provide an unrivaled combination of 92+ CRI and up to 74 lumens per watt efficacy.

Using this new technology, Cree’s LBR-30 delivers light with beautiful, warm color characteristics by mixing the light from red and yellow LEDs, while their high efficacy and longevity significantly reduce both energy and maintenance costs.

Additionally, an administrative office received a lighting upgrade with two Cree LR24™ LED troffers, and two CR24™ troffers were placed in the fitness room. The LR24 luminaire is a revolutionary architectural layin designed for applications that require high-ambient light levels, and the CR24 troffer delivers up to 5,000 lumens of exceptional 90-plus CRI light while achieving 90 to 110 lumens per watt.

Cree architectural troffers demonstrate technical ingenuity at its finest, delivering a superior mix of performance and payback with unmatched longevity and color consistency, all backed by an industry-best fixture warranty.

Benefit

When planning this complete lobby renovation, Courtyard Louisville East management expected the modern new furniture to improve the lobby’s look. But the results were even better than expected.

The new orange and red furniture appears even more vibrant than management hoped, thanks to the LED lighting from Cree. “The lights really make the color of the furniture pop,” says General Manager Larry Carrico, and guests are noticing.

Not only is the light quality striking, but the efficiency of the Cree lighting system means the hotel is saving a considerable amount of energy, as the lobby lights are on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And since the CR6 LED downlights are dimmable to 5 percent, hotel employees regularly turn them down in the evenings, which helps save even more energy.

Carrico says the hotel staff used to change burned-out 65-watt incandescent light bulbs about once every four to six months. They haven’t had to touch a single LED light since they were installed in August 2010. That’s because Cree’s CR6 LED downlights are designed to last 50,000 hours, which means the hotel could leave them on 24 hours a day, seven days a week and not have to worry about replacing one for at least five and a half years.

With energy consumption reduced by 80 percent, hotel management is expecting to see a payback of approximately 15 months on its purchase. A wise investment such as this is just one more reason Courtyard by Marriott^® is able to extend top-quality accommodations at very affordable prices.