RACINE - The glow at the corner of Douglas Avenue and Goold Street is the future of lighting.

The new Better Day BP fuel station, store and car wash jumped over metal-halide and fluorescent lighting and went right to LED.

"We're the first ones in the world, period," to use all LED (light-emitting diode) lighting for a gas station, owner Tom Tousis said.

But he isn't the only one making that boast.

"It's the first, definitely, in the U.S., and probably the world," said Scott Manning, sales manager for the manufacturer, Beta/Kramer Lighting, a division of Ruud Lighting.

"We know that we're the only LED canopy manufacturer," Manning said. And Tousis is their first customer.

"It won't be for long," Manning said, "because we have some more coming up soon."

The corner station replaces the former Gibson's Charhouse restaurant on that site, 2100 Douglas Ave. The restaurant was razed after Tousis' parents, Gus and Vickie Tousis, retired.

The new enterprise includes seven fuel pumps including diesel and E-85, a large store and LED lighting throughout. That includes the pole lights, canopy lighting, all exterior lighting on the building and car wash, interior car wash lighting - everywhere but inside the store.

"We didn't have time to get lights engineered for inside, but we'll have product available soon," Manning said. The station will switch over as soon as that's ready.

Worth the investment

Tousis said he ran across Beta/Kramer and its LED lighting at a Madison petroleum marketers trade show. Only later did he learn that Beta/Kramer is a Ruud Lighting division.

"I asked about some prices," Tousis said. "It's very expensive," about five times more than traditional, metal-halide lighting.

But when he put the cost of LED light fixtures on a 30-year spreadsheet and added all the variables he could think of, "then they became very, very cheap."

The LED lights will last 30 years, he said.

They will save him 62 percent on electricity usage, Manning said. And that's just one of the environmental advantages.

"There are a lot of gases emitted when making a light bulb," Tousis said. "… You get probably a maximum of two years out of them, and then no one disposes of them the right way. They get thrown away and they break."

Metal-halide lights contain mercury and lead, Manning said. LEDs have none.

As for how the LED lighting looks, Tousis compared it to the very bright-white xenon headlights.

"The product is unbelievable," he said. "It gives everything a very clean look. You stand under it, your car looks clean, your shoes look clean."

Station a perfect demonstration site for Ruud technology

MOUNT PLEASANT - Right in its backyard, Ruud Lighting now has a demonstration site for its gas station LED lighting.

The Better Day BP station at 2100 Douglas Ave. is evidently the first all-LED (light-emitting diode) station in the country, and possibly in the world. The lighting all came from Ruud's Beta/Kramer Lighting division.

Beta/Kramer Sales Manager Scott Manning said Ruud saw that it was ahead of the curve on broadening the uses of LEDs. "We saw that nobody else is where we are," and have pursued that advantage, he said.

Tom Tousis, owner of the new gas station, ran across Beta/Kramer and its LED lighting at a Madison petroleum marketers trade show. He had no idea the manufacturer was back in his hometown.

"We worked with him to get it done," Manning said. "Now we can use it as a sales tool."

Tousis said the interest in the LED lighting by other companies has been phenomenal. Beta/Kramer has brought people in from Malaysia, Wendy's Hamburgers, ExxonMobil and a large petroleum chain from the East.

Manning said Beta/Kramer is also working with Superamerica/Speedway to light some of its sites.

Outside the world of filling stations, interest in LED street lights is growing out West, Manning said. They will save at minimum 50 percent on electricity, he said.

Over the past six or seven years the City of Racine has converted about 90 percent of its traffic signals to LED, said Public Works Commissioner Rick Jones. The electric bill has plummeted from about $80,000 to $40,000 yearly; the savings would be greater, but there are other system costs besides keeping the lights on.

Manning noted that Beta/Kramer has a demonstration site for LED parking lot lighting at The Prairie School - half LED and half traditional, for comparison.

Unlike traditional industrial lights such as metal-halide, Manning said, LED lighting is mercury- and lead-free. "Once it's up there's virtually no maintenance," he said. "It's a 150,000-hour fixture.

"Just about any industry will look into LED lighting," he predicted. "We'll launch some LED interior lighting in the spring.

"LED is going to be here forever."