SAVE Money by Reducing Your Energy Consumption
Reduce costs and your carbon footprint using energy efficent, low carbon LED lighting in your business.
Simple tips to reducing your carbon footprint and so saving money on your lighting:
* Reduce quantity & ouput of lights used.
In Britain we have a habit of feeling that whole rooms need to be fully lit. We have traditionally used a pendant light fitting or chandelier in the centre of the room with one or more bulbs to give light everywhere.
This is a very inefficient use of lighting. By working out where you need light you are able to place individual, directional lights only where they are going to be used. A 20w halogen spot is plenty to read with for example.
This also lets you create a much more pleasant & subtle ambiance within your rooms.
* Easy Way to save yourself money
Corridoor lighting in hotels or offices often use many high powered light fittings. The recommended illuminance of corridors is 30-50 lux, this is in comparison to 300-500 lux for work light in an office.
By replacing 50w halogen downlighters with 20w will cut their energy consumption by more than 50% but keeps the corridoors with sufficient lighting for people to see by. This will reduce annual energy costs for 50 lamps by £1,300.
* Stage two, use LED alternatives
Now that you have noticed that the best way to save money on your hotel or office lighting is to reduce the output from each of your spots, think about replacing them with good quality LED MR16 units.
These vary in price from under £5 to £60 or more. By and large you get what you pay for. The lamps under £5 are generally made up of many low powered LEDs – these are not recommended for illumination purposes, but work well if you are looking for a splash of colour on a wall. MR16 spots using a single luxeon or Cree LED of 3w will cost between £10-20. These are useful where you are looking to illuminate something specific, a picture, sculpture or as a reading light. See news: St. Vigeans. More powerful units are available which can replace 20, 35 or even 50w halogen downlighters.
* Savings possible when replacing with LED
Replacing 50x 50w halogen downlighters with 4w LED lamps in a corridoor lit 24 hours/day will save over 20,000 kWh and £2,000/year. With an interest free loan from the Carbon Trust you can pay for the cost of convertion to low energy hotel lighting or office lighting over a 3-4 year period as you recognise the savings.
If you add to that the fact that Halogen spots need to be replace approximately twice yearly compared to LED which if designed correctly (see below) will last 5-10 years, you get even greater saving through reduced maintenance requirements.
*** Warning: ****
LEDs produce heat in proportion to their power. However if LEDs get hot they deteriorate rapidly, loosing intensity. LED units above 3w must be designed with suitable methods of removing this excess heat, this is the reason for the higher production costs.
Many online stores do not care whether the lamp they sell you works for 6 months or 6 years, they have made their sale.
We highly recommend talking to a specialist such as ourselves who can give advice on LED modules that have been designed for maximum efficiency and life span. We can help you choose the best lamp for the job you are trying to achieve, balancing cost with reliability and functionality.
