Like most small businesses, the Hermesman family at Ted’s Rental & Sales is focused on a quality customer experience. After 16 years at their current location, 999 E College Drive, their 12,000-foot showroom was dim and tired. They wanted to update it by undergoing a remodeling project including the addition of new lighting fixtures and a spotlight. Their vision was to make the showroom brighter and more modern to breathe new life into the 49-year-old local business by showcasing their products in the best light possible.

With the help of Green Star LED (another local business) and LPEA’s commercial LED retrofit rebates, they installed lighting fixtures with new LEDs. Thanks to LPEA’s Commercial LED Lighting Rebate Program, Ted’s Rental saved $7,775 by replacing old traditional bulbs with new ones. But that wasn’t the only positive change as a result of replacing old bulbs with more efficient bulbs: “It’s a massive difference,” owner Ted Hermesman III said. “The quality of light was poor before. Now, the high bay fixture puts out a lot of light – almost too much light – and we decided to hold off on the spotlight,” he says with a chuckle. “Customers frequently say ‘it’s awful bright in here!’ and it has made a big difference in the way we can display and highlight products,” said Hermesman.

Ted’s Rental is a great example of a successful locally-owned family business that has been a fixture in the community since 1971. The Hermesman family has been in the area for four generations and Ted’s middle son and one of his daughters works at the business. They have a total of 10 staff members (family included).

Ted said the secret of success is “good, old fashioned hard work.” He was five years old when he received his first paycheck and has worked at only one other business for two weeks when he was in high school. He said when he was a teenager and his friends were going to the river to have fun, he worked.Ted is active in his church, has been a contributing member of the Daybreak Rotary Club since it was chartered in 2002, and he also volunteers for the fire department. “Durango’s been a great town for us. We’re in it for the long haul,” Hermesman said.

LPEA’s Commercial LED Lighting Rebate Program

LPEA offers new construction and retrofit rebates to improve operating efficiency, including energy demand and kilowatt-hour use across our power supply network 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Improved efficiency helps reduce costs for all members. Commercial LED Lighting retrofit rebates are available for small and large commercial LPEA members installing energy efficient LED lighting as retrofits.

For retrofit projects, customers must complete the 2020 Commercial LED Retrofit Rebate application and provide it, along with the LPEA account number, contact information, service address, and type of business to lighting@lpea.coop.

Disposal of Retrofitted Bulbs The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) requires all lighting materials be recycled and disposed of properly. Many commonly used light bulbs contain small amounts of mercury and other metals. These bulbs include fluorescent, compact fluorescent, high-pressure sodium, mercury vapor and metal halide lamps. More information on bulb recycling opportunities is at https://lpea.coop/lighting-rebates.