Any landlord who believes that they can’t afford energy efficient lighting isn’t being realistic. Even in the short run, incandescent lighting is a poor (and expensive) choice for commercial applications.

The biggest single ownership cost of hallway or security lighting is the electricity used to operate the lights. Maintenance is usually the second largest cost. Yet when light fixtures are purchased, initial price is often the deciding factor. Failing to consider operating and maintenance costs will lead to costly mistakes.

The real issue is do you want to pay once to improve the efficiency of your buildings lighting, or would you prefer to pay unnecessary electrical costs every year? Doing nothing will guarantee that your energy costs will always be high.

Look around your building for incandescent lights that are on all night, or better still, 24 hours a day. Every light you find represents lost profit.

Typical fast payback retrofits include:

1) Hallway lighting – There are two ways to improve the efficiency of hallway lighting. The easiest is to replace the incandescent light with a screw in compact fluorescent light. The other way is to replace the fixture with a new fixture that uses pin base compact fluorescent lamps. This will optimize light levels from the fixture, reduce the possibility of theft and ensure that an incandescent bulbs cannot be reinstalled in the future. Under continuous use, compact lamps can last up to two years. The normal rated life is usually 8000 to 10,000 hours based on an average on/off cycle of three hours. The table below shows typical savings at an electricity cost of $0.12/kWh.

* Labour costs for maintenance are NOT included in savings

2) Dusk to dawn security lighting – Their low first cost may make incandescent flood lights  seem like a bargain, but in reality these lights are a very expensive way to provide dusk to dawn security lighting. Since bulb life is short, maintenance is costly, particularly if a ladder or lift equipment is required to change lights mounted on a pole or high on a wall.

For dusk to dawn security lights, consider high pressure sodium lights or fluorescent lighting suitable for exterior use.  High pressure sodium lights provide a warm yellow light. If a whiter light is desired for signage or applications where colour rendition is important, use metal halide lighting or CFLs.

Annual Costs – Dusk to Dawn Security Lighting

3) Exit Lights – A 30 watt exit light (two 15 watt lamps) uses about $30 of electricity each year. Bulb changes increase costs still further. Modern LED bulbs use less than 3 watts, last 15 years or more, can be easily retrofitted to most fixtures and reduce fixture energy use to only about $3 per year. Retrofit bulbs cost about $10 each and will pay back the cost in well under a year through electricity saving alone. Reduced maintenance costs produce further savings plus fire official won’t find any more burnt out exit lights in your building.