For someone concerned about green energy, the Las Vegas Strip is a nightmare. The sheer amount of power that goes into lighting up all those neon signs night after night is astonishing. That’s before you even get inside: the air-conditioning which is in use for the majority of the year is another major power-drain. In 2007, Forbes claimed that Las Vegas as a whole uses 5,600MW on a summer’s day and that the Strip accounts for 20% of this demand. Very roughly, that’s the output of a large coal plant or medium nuclear plant. So what can casinos do to lessen their energy consumption and become greener?

Air Conditioning

If you go on forums about air conditioning in Las Vegas, you can find complaint after complaint about the temperature inside casinos. Funnily enough, they are mostly about the air-con being too cold. Luckily for them, this is nothing an Air Conditioning Repair company can’t fix, as often it is a case of tweaking the temperature of the air that is coming out. Although it seems quite strange that it would be too cold in a city that is so hot most of the time. While most people who use HVAC professionals from Sirius Plumbing and Air Conditioning (visit the site), for example, can decide what temperature they would like their house to be, casinos have to pick a temperature for their customers. Obviously, the amount of heat generated by all the lights and machines needs to be combatted, but it seems that the air-con is generally over-compensating. Casinos should not only think about their use of air-con but whether the units installed are still doing a green and cost-effective job of regulating temperature. In this respect, online casinos such as Betsafe (https://www.betsafe.com/en/) are getting a great deal by foregoing high energy costs.

Change the Lighting

Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino in California made the move to LED lighting this year and will save themselves and estimated 291,000 Kilowatts in power over a year. Such decisions not only save money for the casino in terms of energy used and maintenance (LED bulbs have an extremely long lifespan), they also can qualify businesses for energy rebates. LED lights also offer a significantly brighter and whiter light than traditional high-pressure sodium lamps – Fantasy Springs used them to illuminate outer walls and parking garages and claimed the upgrade would pay for itself in 2 and a half years.

Use the EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a free workshop on how to make your casino greener and a free webinar every year. You can be notified about these events and even request to be a speaker by contacting the EPA. Their website will also give information for casinos on green products, from appliances and cleaning products to vehicles and office supplies. Casinos can also get free assessments from some regional EPA offices and local energy providers if they do not want to incur the cost themselves. The agency also gives plenty of advice on how to reduce waste generation and energy in use in general.