Art Van Furniture, Michigan's largest furniture retailer and America's largest independent furniture retailer, has executed a plan to replace 38,000 incandescent lamps with LED throughout the 34 Art Van showrooms in Michigan to save energy. And these savings led DTE Energy and the Engineering Society of Detroit to honor it for its trailblazing efforts.

The switch from incandescent to LED will save 63 watts of energy per lamp. Moreover, the new lamps have a maximum temperature of only 85 degrees. The traditional, incandescent lamps reach temperatures of more than 200 degrees. This means that Art Van will also be cutting costs by reducing the heat load in their showrooms with the new lighting system.

"Switching to LED gives us crisper, cleaner, brighter lighting, and longer lamp life, which equals far lower maintenance costs," explains Art Van Property Manager, David Winowiecki, who accepted the award on the company's behalf. "We're doing something that is eco-friendly, saves the company money, and we won an award for doing it. You can't beat that."