If you’re choosing lighting for an extension to your premises or as part of a refurbishment, then you need to take account of the whole life running cost of the lighting (initial installation, energy and maintenance running costs).
You should make sure you get the right light quality for your office or commercial application, again balancing the quality of the light and what effect it has on working conditions compared to the whole life running costs. The effect on people productivity is often overlooked but lighting changes the working environment and can alter how well your team perform.
If you’re looking to upgrade your lighting then make sure you choose a reliable supplier with experience of evaluating the financial payback from making a change. You also want someone who will take time to fully understand the needs of your business and explain the reasons behind their proposed solution.
LED lighting in an office or commercial workspace offers a very wide range of benefits which is why you’ll find them used almost every time in new commercial premises.
In simple terms, the two benefits to you in a commercial workplace are that over their normal life, LEDs are far cheaper to run than traditional forms of lighting and they require very little, if any, maintenance, principally because their replacement cycle is so long by comparison.
So summarising, the main benefits of LEDs are:
- They have a long life, (up to 30 years) with a much lower replacement cycle and, because of their reliability, they have a much lower maintenance cost when compared to traditional lighting
- They are fully dimmable – so you can adjust the lighting to the required brightness to suit your workplace and of course dimmed lighting means reduced energy costs
- They are rugged, durable and reliable – LED lights have no fragile filament or tube. They are generally more resistant to cold temperatures and shock, relative to HID and fluorescent lamps
- LEDs produce light almost immediately you turn them on, so there is no waiting for the light to become as bright as you need it to be
- Unlike traditional lighting they do not produce heat which helps with general temperature control
- They are glass and mercury-free. Unlike fluorescent and HID lamps, LEDs have no brittle glass casing. This, combined with being mercury-free, makes them the ideal choice for food-safe environments where contamination must be avoided
While they have significant advantages over other types of lamps, if you compare prices on the high street at first they appear to be the most expensive types available until you take into account replacement and maintenance costs.
The payback on investment can be very quick indeed, sometimes it can be measured in months; in most cases, it will be under (3-4) years. However, this depends on the nature of the installation, although most are fairly straightforward. It is well worth having a detailed assessment made – it takes under 30 minutes to do most surveys and then you leave us to do the calculations for you.
LED stands for Light Emitting Diodes and refers to a special type of diode that provides light when electricity passes through it. They come in every type of fitting from panels and emergency lights, to floodlights. They also come in a range of colour temperatures from very warm, warm white, cool white, daylight to very cool. Daylight and cool white lighting are the most popular in commercial properties.
Unlike most other forms of lighting, LEDs do not produce heat.
If you are technical, still in relatively simple terms, a diode is a form of one-way valve, so it allows electricity to flow one way only. The diode is specially manufactured so that light will be produced as electricity is passed through it. Varying the design of the semiconductor materials in the diode can limit the amount of energy that flows through them. This will change the colour of the light. This is how a multi-colour LED bulb is produced for some applications.
As part of our services, we can conduct, at no charge and of course no obligation, an unbiased full lighting audit to analyse your current lighting and fittings and the energy costs associated with them. We provide you with an easy to understand yet detailed set of calculations to compare your current costs compared to the projected savings after switching to LEDs or alternative forms of lighting, with a quotation to show the cost of making the change.
The simple answer to this question is that LEDs are clearly the most efficient form of lighting currently available, so if you are installing new lights then LEDs are the most logical choice.
However, it is also important to get the right type and correct specification of lighting as it can have a huge impact on the work environment.
Getting the lighting right in terms of how much and what colour in an office affects how tired your staff’s eyes get which in turn affects how physically tired they become and of course that affects their productivity. In a storage area you want the right amount of lighting to balance good visibility against cost. In a production environment, you want the correct lighting in different areas to maintain visibility as it can affect productivity and safety.
This is often taken for granted, however, our experience tells us the siting and specification of lighting requires care and attention. If you get it wrong you may never know and you probably will never realise but it can have an effect on productivity and safety.
As with any product you will find there is a range of different quality of LED and other lighting. In our experience, the better quality of lighting gives fewer problems on installation and ongoing maintenance and any additional cost is quickly recovered during the life of the lighting. We only propose proven higher quality lighting manufacturers so all our lighting and fittings come with an extended warranty. You will get a minimum life expectancy of up to 50,000 hrs from good quality LED lights.
Consumer reviews such as Which support the use of better quality LED products. It is like anything, there are cheap products in the market but you will get what you pay for.
Another source of modern low energy lighting are compact fluorescents (CFL’s). These lamps are becoming increasingly popular and while they are not quite as energy-efficient as LED lamps they are an energy-efficient replacement to traditional incandescent and halogen down lighters. The upfront cost is lower than LED light bulbs but this is offset completely by their higher running costs.
We can offer commercial customers attractive financing for low energy lighting installations, through a financing scheme backed by the Carbon Trust. This scheme is different to normal financing options as your proposed installation is reviewed by the Carbon Trust and the expected savings (from your electric bill) is used to calculate your payments, typically over five or seven years. Just ask one of our advisors for further information.
Our qualified assessors and installers are experienced in all the technologies available and we have extensive experience across a wide range of types of property and industry. That means you can be completely confident you will get a solution that will fit your specific circumstances without any pressure to make an investment. It is the economic argument and what improved lighting will bring to your business that will make up your mind if you need to change.
What we guarantee to provide to you, in addition to the normal 5 years comprehensive product guarantee for LEDs:
- We adhere to the requirements of the Renewable Energy Consumer Code (RECC) as a minimum in all our work, commercial or domestic
- Our assessors and our site staff are trained to respect our customers – to deal with you in a prompt, polite and professional manner at all times
- We always respect your property – we use skilled engineers to ensure that your work is completed to the highest possible level of workmanship and we always leave your site clean and tidy
- We maximise your savings and returns by designing lighting that provides the best performance for your circumstances and clearly demonstrates the reasons for our recommendations in practical and economic terms. All our energy solutions are NICEIC approved
- In all our dealings with you and especially in our written information and quotations you won’t get confused by jargon or technical terms. We will make everything crystal clear and easy to understand
- We will manage all aspects of the work and supply for you so you have the minimum hassle and disturbance
- We come to see you for an assessment when we say we will. You will receive prompt advice and if appropriate a prompt quotation and our installers will turn up as scheduled and agreed with you
NICEIC are the UK’s leading voluntary regulatory body for the electrical contracting industry. They provide rigorous certification of companies and products and are nationally recognised.
The easiest next step is to pick up the phone now and call us on 0116 2873226. Feel genuinely free to ask any questions you may have. If you want to understand all the costs and benefits we will be happy to visit your premises for a free, no obligation comprehensive assessment and if relevant, detailed installation quotation.
