Hot food, cool lighting

The Chipotle Mexican Grill opening at the Mall of America today is the chain's first restaurant designed with energy-saving LED lighting technology from the beginning.

Chipotle design director Scott Shippey said the chain in November 2007 began working with Eco-Story, a manufacturer of next-generation LED (light-emitting diode) lighting, which uses a fraction of the energy of incandescent options.

"They finally cracked the formula to use LED lighting in dining and retail situations," Shippey said. Eco-Story developed a five-watt LED lamp for Chipotle that mimicked the distinctive look of Chipotle's standard 50-watt light bulb. Each Chipotle restaurant might use 40 to 60 of those $4 incandescent bulbs. The new LED bulbs cost $35, but they are expected to last six to eight years before the light quality dims and they need replacement. Shippey says a Denver restaurant that was retrofitted with the new lights expects to save $900 to $1,000 a year on electricity. The return on investment in the new lights is about 12 months.
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Source: StarTribune.com, Minneapolis St.Paul, Minnesota
http://www.startribune.com/business/26153554.html?location_refer=Busines