Smart Investment

How Much of Your Electricity Cost is from Lighting?

Figure 5: U.S. Lighting Percentage of Electricity
Figure 5: U.S. Lighting Percentage of Electricity
Source: LEDSavingSolutions.com and U.S. Dept. of Energy

Naturally, different types of facilities use more electricity for lighting than others. Toping the chart for highest percentage of lighting use are hospitals, which are open 24/7, and retailers, which are increasingly open longer hours. The potential for LEDs to dramatically help restaurants and industrial warehouse/factories reduce operating costs is also extremely high. Restaurants most often use legacy incandescent lamps for their dimming feature, so they do not convert to CFLs. Warehouses and Factories often have inefficient high bay fixtures, making them strong candidates for savings as well. This chart also does not illustrate the 24/7 areas within any property—like covered parking garages and fire stair towers—that are federally mandated to be lighted around the clock.

Source: www.LEDsavingsolutions.com, DOE

LED Lighting is a Smart Investment

LED lights can reduce the cost of lighting by 50% to 80% and many last up to 80,000 hours, which equates to several decades under typical usage levels. The extended longevity of LEDs reduces the cost of replacing other bulbs every few years. Plus, LED lights do not contain Mercury, an environmental toxin that is extremely costly to handle and discard.

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