To Keep Your Commercial Electricity Bill Down, Consider LED Lighting Instead
If you run a large retail operation and have to make sure that you run everything as efficiently as possible, you'll want to keep your energy costs in check. In this case, you will be particularly focused on lighting as one of the biggest electricity users and should consider a facility-wide upgrade. You should be even more focused if you rely on old-fashioned fluorescent technology, so what do you need to consider as you analyse your needs?
Ever-Growing Costs
In recent times, energy costs have been in the news and are likely to grow even more in the year ahead. When combined with rising inflation, you can quickly see why every major operation must tackle its energy bill.
Fluorescent Downside
But when it comes to lighting, you need to focus on other elements as well. Does your system produce the best quality output to show your products in their best light, quite literally? Is your lighting system so outdated that it tends to give off an audible buzz or hum? Even worse, could these lights give your employees or visitors a headache if they are exposed to them for too long?
Towards the end of their lives, fluorescent light fixtures could become so inefficient that they actually give off small amounts of toxic mercury. As they lose this efficiency after having to deal with constant on and off cycles, you may notice an increase in their failure rate. Furthermore, fluorescent bulbs tend to be omnidirectional, so much of their output is wasted.
LED Superiority
Consider a facility-wide upgrade to LED lights. They have a very long lifespan, and you certainly get more value for your money over the fluorescent option. They are much more energy-efficient and emit light directionally instead, which means that there will be less wastage all around.
Further, the quality of the light is much higher, and the actual units themselves can be much smaller than your previous installation. They switch on or off without lengthy warmup and cooldown periods too.
Your Choice
Certainly, you have to consider the installation costs, which may be greater than the alternatives. But LED lights are a lot cheaper than they used to be, and you will need to allocate less money from your annual maintenance bill.
Bringing in the Electrician
If you have decided to pursue the LED route, the first move is to bring in a commercial electrician. They will be familiar with this type of upgrade and can get the work done with as little disruption to your everyday activities as possible.