Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd is gearing up to stimulate demand for LED lighting, to replace incandescent lamps used in commercial facilities with bulb type fluorescent lamps and LED lamps.

Electricity costs can be cut by 80% if incandescent lamps are replaced with LED lamps, Panasonic pointed out, the company is planning to encourage users to replace their existing lighting equipment by launching a campaign called "Profitable Lighting Project". The campaign is aimed at emphasizing the low running cost resulting from the lower power consumption and longer life of fluorescent lamps and LED lamps.

Also, the company will make such replacement easier so that it does not interfere with the users' businesses. LED lamps are generally smaller than incandescent lamps. Therefore, Panasonic will make it possible to directly insert LED downlight lamps in, for example, ceiling sockets for incandescent lamps by using an adapter called "renewal plate."

Just recently, the company changed 27 lamps, about 70% of the lighting equipment, in the "Shakey's" pizza restaurant on Shinjuku Dori Street with its bulb type fluorescent lamps and LED lamps Nov 20, 2008. Thanks to the replacement, the restaurant's annual electricity bill of ¥350,000 is expected to drop to ¥70,000. It’s disclosed that the replacement cost ¥1.05 million, including ¥900,000 for lighting equipment and ¥150,000 for installation fee. So, this cost can be paid off in about three years. The installation took about four hours.

Panasonic indicated that they will continue to propose using their LED and fluorescent lamps in combination and recouping the initial investment in two to three years.