Secretary of the United States Navy, Ray Mabus, was excited to reveal that he is helping the Navy save millions of dollars, more than 150 million dollars to be exact, and is saving 3 percent of fuel costs per year for fleets being converted over to LED lighting by Energy Focus.

“Energy Focus products have now been installed on more than half of the ships & subs of the Active U.S. fleet,” said Dave Bina, Energy Focus Business Development Manager, Maritime and Navy business. “Based on the standard budgets for each ship class, full conversion to our LED products should be complete in next 5 years, Bina said

Energy Focus has partnered with the U.S. Navy since 2006 to develop LED lighting that would replace outdated lighting on ships that help the Navy save money and become more fuel efficient. LED technology by Energy Focus is helping the ships increase fuel efficiency and is creating a cash savings that the Navy will use for other expenses with the money that it is saving by retrofitting ships with Energy Focus LED lights. Mabus also said the savings also helps the Navy offset severe funding cuts and has also provided the Navy with more flexibility in positioning and managing its fleets around the world among other benefits. Maybus talks about this in a recent article Click here to read.

According to another report by Defense News, there is a lot of opportunities in upgrading lights on navy fleets. Most navy ships use T12 fluorescent tube lights, and on average a typical Arleigh Burke-class destroyer would need 281 bunk lights, 201 large and 50 small globes, 19 explosion-proof globes, and at least 3,682 2-foot bulbs in single, double and triple-lamp fixtures.

The larger the ship the more lighting it requires, a cruiser for instance could use up to 6,000 2-foot lamps.

The initial costs for LED lights are still more expensive than the T12 fluorescent tube lights, which are estimated to cost US $4 each in the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) system. In contrast Energy Focus 2-foot LED tube lights are estimated to cost about 40 times of that at US $158 (with shipping included).

Still, the Navy expects a destroyer with a service life of at least 35 years will be able to recover the LED lighting installation costs within 10 years.