Lights? Action, Savings!

20 to 40% of the energy consumed by a building is used on artificial light and over half of the buildings in the UK are using outdated lighting technology.  In fact modern lighting technology is moving forward at such a pace that even lamps that were ‘top technology' just a few years ago can be replaced by more efficient/longer lasting alternatives.

With CRC just around the corner and soaring energy prices now is a good time to take a fresh look at your building lighting, and here at InHolborn we have put a package of suppliers and products together to help you.

Lighting refit

If you have just taken on a building or are planning a refit then this will give you a fantastic opportunity for savings, you can take advantage of modern light fittings, lamps and controls to maximize the efficiency of your building and create the highest levels of comfort for your staff.

Retro fit new bulbs

If you want to keep your existing light fittings, but still save money, then there are a range of low energy replacements for most standard bulbs and tubes.  Although sometimes more expensive to purchase these alternatives use much less energy and last considerably longer.  See Cost of Ownership later.  Typical payback times are less than a year and have the advantage that you can do the relamp in phases.

New controls

How often do you walk past an office building at night and all the lights are on?  How often do you walk past the same building in broad daylight and all the lights are on as well?  The answer is occupancy and daylight controls, if the room is empty or naturally lit then the lights go off.  Obviously there is a cost involved in this but bear in mind that in addition to energy savings the lamps will need replacing less often.

Is the thought of rewiring putting you off lighting sensors?  Well, we are currently investigating a ‘Wire Free' occupancy/daylight control which replaces the light switch by the door, this communicates by radio with a battery powered sensor on the ceiling.  There are no wires, the battery lasts 10 years and you can even take it with you if you move!

Cost of Ownership

When looking at replacing lamps you need to consider all aspects of the lamp, rather than just the energy it uses.

For instance a standard 600mm 18w fluorescent tube costs about £1.90 to buy and can be replaced by a 16w fluorescent tube at about £2.20.  On the face of it, there is not much saving, however the standard tube will last 5 years and the replacement 9 thus reducing the replacement costs by 44%.  If you have to employ someone to change lamps then the savings can be even more significant.

In other examples the savings can be nothing short of astounding, take the humble 50w GU10 spot light bulb for instance; this costs around a pound and consumes .45kWh in a working day.  GU10 lamps are notoriously fragile and last around 2000 hrs (less than a year!), a 7w Compact Fluorescent might cost about 10 times as much but it lasts 15000hrs and consumes a fraction of the power, in fact at 12p/kWh it will pay for itself in about 10 months, and then will run for another 6 years or so saving £12 a year in energy!

Take a look at our Lighting Calculator to see what you could save.

Other Benefits of low energy lighting

Low energy bulbs are much more efficient than ordinary bulbs and as such generate a lot less waste heat, reducing the load on air conditioning and other cooling equipment.  As stated earlier, they tend to last longer so disruption due to maintenance is reduced, as is the amount of material sent to be recycled.

Reducing your overall energy consumption may allow you to reduce your capacity charge as your peak demand will be less.

Bye Bye filament lamps

From September 2009 all pearl/frosted filament bulbs and those of 100w or more have been banned from manufacture in Europe.  With 75w, 60w and 25w filament lamps following in September 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.  This ban is intended to drive the consumer away from inefficient filament bulbs towards their low energy equivalents, and why not as a suitably selected low energy bulb will save money and carbon compared to its old fashioned equivalent.