LED lighting can save you a small fortune

(image provided by LED Light Vision)

Following on from one of our recent ‘money saving’ posts, discussing how much you can save by switching to infrared heating panels. We thought we keep on a similar theme this week, and take a look at the latest LED lighting technology…

It came about, due to a good friend of ours having recently changed over to LED’s in their business. They run a haulage company over in Bolton. And as well as having a number of offices, they have a warehouse, maintenance building and a very large yard. Most of which needs good lighting for at least 12 hours a day 7 days a week. So you can image their electricity bill was huge!

Since switching to LED lighting, he swears they have chopped a whopping 70% off their annual lighting bill. And, if I remember rightly, they were paying something in the region of £6,000 a year, and now it’s less than £2,000. That’s over a £4,000 saving every year!

Yes your right, it’s not free to change…

As an example, it cost our friend about £10,000. But that’s not the whole story. As they are in Greater Manchester they were able to claim a carbon reduction grant from the Manchester Business Growth Hub, which contributed 50%. Yes, they got a whopping £5,000 towards the costs. Which means they can break even in just over 12 months. Now that’s amazing.

And it seems LED lighting has moved on dramatically since it was first introduced, with many advantages…

• They are considerably cheaper to run (as in our friends case). And some of the best lamps have a proven energy saving of up to 94% against traditional lights.
• Return on your investment is around 3 months for simple lamp replacements and between 12-24 months for larger projects that require light fitting upgrades.
• Cost savings can be anywhere between 60% and 94%.
• Many existing light fittings have an LED equivalent, saving on fitting upgrade costs.
• LED’s have no starter or ballast, so there is no draw of additional power when the light is switched on.
• They very rarely need replacing, so save unseen and sometimes forgotten costs in maintenance.
• And they produce virtually no heat, unlike fluorescent’s, which needs replacing on occasion due to brittle end caps.
• Amazingly they last 30 times longer than halogen bulbs and and 10 times longer than Fluorescent’s.
• LED’s are extremely environmentally friendly and ‘Dark-sky’ compliant (no mercury or other harmful chemicals).
• They have minimal burn light reduction, which means they will not reduce the amount of light they produce over time, like others.
• You get instant light, with no warm up or flicker.
• It’s also a fact that LED lighting is optimised for human vision.

In addition to saving money, using the right LED’s can completely change how an internal space looks and feels, providing the right ambience. But it’s important you choose an experienced supplier, who has the ability to carry out a lighting survey, to advise you on how best to use the space. As well as making sure you keep to the latest health and safety guidelines.

Not many organisations think about changing their external lighting with LED’s. But this could also reduce your lighting running costs significantly. Certainly, if you have external lighting running all night for security, or you have lighting on all night as signage or advertising, and if you operate 24/7 you might even need the external lighting on all night.

Earlier, we talked briefly about funding, but we just want to cover this in a little more detail here, as there are a couple of options available, depending where your organisation is located…

• The Carbon Trust Green Business Scheme is available across England & Wales, and will contribute 15% towards approved projects, delivered by approved suppliers (such as these) for projects between £5,000 & £33,333.
• The Carbon Reduction Grant (available from Manchester Business Growth Hub) will fund 50% of the total project costs for organisation located in Greater Manchester. Up to a maximum total project cost of £25,000.
• The Resource Efficiency Grant (available through the Leeds Enterprise Partnership) provides similar types of funding schemes, which cover Leeds, Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirkless, Selby, Wakefield and York.

We hope this gives you a better understanding of LED lighting technology, the savings you can make and the funding that is available to help you. And, as the ‘Money Saving Experts’ for the office and workplace, we will share with you other ideas, tips and tricks, which you can use to reduce your operating costs and increase your profitability, is the very near future.