The financial benefits of a lighting survey

With constantly increasing energy prices, it is understandable that businesses across the UK are looking at solutions that can save them money on gas and electricity expenditure.

Some solutions to reducing energy costs involve large investments in the likes of solar panels while others require cuts to existing consumption by reducing the use or temperature settings of things like air conditioning in the office.

At HF, we are able to offer a number of solutions to help businesses reduce their energy consumption including energy reports and water conservation reports and today, we want to talk about Lighting Surveys.

A Lighting Survey is exactly as it sounds.  We conduct a site survey of your existing lighting set up, review your current expenditure on lighting and provide solutions to reduce this expenditure.  One of the easiest solutions to reduce your lighting energy consumption is to switch to LED lighting.

Switching to LED lighting has always been a no brainer in our eyes.  The benefits of LED lighting go beyond just the cost saving of making the switch and can deliver an almost instant return on your investment. LED lighting is one of the best ways for businesses to lower their energy consumption and therefore their energy costs so if you are currently still using conventional spotlights, halogen bulbs or fluorescent lighting in your commercial premises, we can help you save a lot of money on your energy bills.

As an example, we have recently completed a lighting report for a customer in Edinburgh.  Their existing annual kWh usage is 25,000 which has been costing them in the region of £34,000 per year.  By switching to LED lighting, their estimated kWh usage will drop from 25,000 to just 9,000. This means that they will go from spending around £34,000 per year on electricity to just £12,500!!!

You do not have to be very good at maths to see the significant saving that upgrading to LED lighting can have for your business. And while there is an initial cost to switching to LED lighting, the financial savings means that they will pay for themselves incredibly quickly. All while lowering your electricity usage and helping your business save money in the months and years ahead.

The advantages of switching to LED lighting

There are many advantages for commercial, retail and industrial business sectors when upgrading to LED lighting from inefficient halogen and compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) including:

Increased Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency in lighting solutions are looked at in two ways.  Luminous efficacy and useful lumens.  This describes the amount of light emitted per unit of power (watts) by the light source.  Upgrading to LED lighting can result in 65% or more improvement in energy efficiency of your business facilities lighting.  If you are currently using outdated and energy inefficient lighting, this energy saving can be even more.

Long Life Span

The components of an LED light and the way that they generate light means that they have a far greater lifespan than other forms of light source.  A traditional light bulbs filament weakens over time before eventually burning out – LEDs don’t burn out.  An LED’s bulb produces low heat levels, is durable and energy efficient which makes it realistically possible to outlast other light bulb types by thousands of hours.

Increased Brightness and Intensity

Because LED lighting is capable of emitting such a high level of brightness, it can offer increase lighting power over halogen meaning that not only does it require less power to turn on an LED light.  You actually need less LED lights to achieve the same room lighting. Which can save you even more in running costs.

Reduced heat output

It is well known that older lighting solutions gave off more heat than light energy.  LED lights are able to operate at a significantly lower temperature and what little heat they do give off is actually dissipated in a special heat sink. And because LEDs do not emit infrared radiation, they are ideal for lighting heat sensitive areas such is in food production facilities, Museums and medical facilities.

Reliability

LED lighting is a far more reliable lighting option. Not just because of the increased lighting hours that they provide but because they can operate in colder temperatures (ideal for walk in freezers) and are more durable to impact and vibrations because they have no filament or fragile parts they are a more reliable option for busy commercial and industrial facilities that need reliable lighting solutions through all hours of the day.

Increased colour rendering

LED lighting has a strong Colour Rendering Index (CRI) which is a measurement of lights ability to reveal the colours of objects compared to an ideal light source aka natural light from the sun.  LED lighting with a high CRI makes them an ideal solution for night time security lighting where they can illuminate more objects in a surrounding area thanks to a higher CRI.

Design Flexibility

LED lighting can be bunched into a unit to replace larger bulbs or be arranged in isolation in smaller devices.  They can be strung out in a sequence and come in a wide range of colours.  In fact, LEDs are available in a wide range of Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) values ranging from Cool to warm, yellow, white light and so much more.  This design freedom means that they can be used to great effect by interior designers, retail stores, museums and so much more.

Instant results

While CFLs take a few moments to warm up and an incandescent bulb works by heating a filament to a temperature that produces light, LEDs are instantaneous and operate at full brightness the moment you flip the switch.

Find out more

These are difficult times for businesses as costs of energy and materials continue to increase.  But however you look at it, LED lighting offers considerable benefits to businesses as a way of reducing energy bills and maintenance requirements whilst offering a well lit, safe working environment.

If you would like to know more about our LED Lighting replacement service or any of our other Electrical Services, examples of the work we have done in this sector or if you have any questions about bespoke electrical services that you are looking for, please call us today on 0800 783 9480 or email info@hf-group.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you soon.