Holiday Inn is taking the green in its iconic logo to heart as it switches to GE’s high efficiency light emitting diodes, or LEDs, in a global signage switch that will save the hotel chain an estimated $4.4 million each year. With the logo being updated at its more than 3,200 hotels as part of a $1 billion global rebranding effort, new signs were needed. By using LEDs, which are part of GE’s ecomagination line of more energy efficient products, Holiday Inn expects to cut energy usage by more than half and achieve an estimated 52 percent reduction in kilowatt hours with signs lit an average of 12 hours per day — every day of the year. That represents an estimated reduction of 8,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, or the equivalent of planting more than 2,300 acres of trees per year.


The light brigade: The Tetra LED systems – which come from GE Consumer & Industrial‘s LED business called Lumination — are significantly more energy efficient than commonly used neon or fluorescent lighting — and they overcome performance challenges fluorescent can encounter in cold climates.

Holiday Inn’s move to LEDs is similar to the one we described back in July about the massive rebranding project undertaken at AT&T — in which the communications giant replaced 7,000 signs on more than 6,500 office buildings and retail locations. The GE LEDs that AT&T is using are expected to save the company more than 5.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, which is equivalent to planting more than 950 acres of trees.

Unlike incandescent lights, which heat a filament and are relatively inefficient because they give off so much heat, LEDs create light when electricity makes electrons move from one energy state to another. And unlike lamps that can shatter, LED’s have no filament to break and are highly resistant to shock and vibration.

For Holiday Inn, the switching from its neon and fluorescent lighting to LEDs translates into $1.4 million in energy savings. Because the giant project involves 9,300 signs in several countries — ranging from 11 inches high to as large as 8 feet — the company also expects to save $3 million in annual maintenance costs. The maintenance costs are critical since for businesses such as Holiday Inn and AT&T, high-rise backlit signage can be expensive to maintain because the signs are usually mounted so high that large cranes or helicopters are needed for maintenance and repairs. And the 50,000-hour rated life of GE’s system eclipses the life of existing fluorescent systems by more than three years — and virtually eliminates the problem of burned out signs.


Who needs neon? To meet the needs of lighting designers, GE took its Tetra LED systems — which have been used successfully in signage applications for several years — and developed a line specifically for architectural lighting. This series of LEDs, designed to resemble exposed neon, can be formed to custom shapes and are up to 40 percent more energy efficient than neon.

Invented by GE scientists decades ago, LEDs were first used in specialized applications. Now, they’re not only being used in giant signs, but also in a variety of smaller commercial settings, such as retail storefront signage, outdoor parking lot and area lights, architectural effect lighting, refrigerated and other display cases inside stores, and by cities in their traffic and crosswalk signals.

* Read the announcement
* Read GE Reports’ AT&T story
* Read about Red Robin’s recent decision to switch to GE’s LEDs
* Learn more about GE’s Tetra lighting
* Take L.E.D. 101 on GE’s website
* Learn more about GE’s Lumination subsidiary
* Read about GE’s paper-thin OLED’s
* Learn about the differences between incandescent, CFL and LED lights