Lighting uses a lot of electricity. For some workplaces, such as offices and shops, it can account for as much half of total electricity bills.
So, if you’re looking to reduce your energy bills and carbon footprint, lighting is a great place to start. Particularly if you haven’t already taken advantage of the latest advancements in lighting technologies.
As well as reducing your costs, making lighting improvements will result in a healthier and more productive working environment for your staff – and in hospitality and retail businesses, a better environment for your customers.
In the guide below, we’ll show you how to do it. (You can also join our upcoming free webinar to hear from our advisors first hand.)
1. Start with some simple, no and low-cost quick wins
Before investing in changes to your lighting systems, there are a few no- and low-cost things you can do to start saving right away.
Label your light switches
It’s the end of the day, you’re about to head home, but when you go to turn off the lights in your area, you’re met with a row of switches on the wall. Which switch is for your area, and which one will leave your colleagues in darkness?
If you’re like most people, you probably won’t take the risk of making the wrong choice and just head straight out of the door, leaving all the lights on until the last person leaves.
This is a common occurrence in businesses and a big waste of energy. However, we have a simple solution for you – just label your light switches. This free template will help you do it.
Engage staff on energy saving
A quick way to save energy is to make sure lights (and other equipment) aren’t left on in rooms that aren’t being used, including offices, meeting rooms, storage cupboards, toilets and other infrequently occupied spaces. It makes sense, but we must all be guilty of leaving a light on by accident at one time or another. It’s easy to forget.
Simply overcoming lighting myths and encouraging staff to switch off lights when they are not needed will immediately reduce your energy use and cut your energy bills.
Our Staff Engagement Toolkit can help you do that. It has everything you need to set up and run and effective green team, train your staff on the importance of energy saving and run a switch off campaign.
Get your lighting for free, by using natural daylight
Making use of natural daylight instead of having lights on is one of the best things you can do to save money and be more energy efficient.
While this might seem obvious, you’d be surprised at the number of businesses that have their lights on in broad daylight. It’s also worth bearing in mind that daylight is the best source of light available in terms of colour and intensity. Natural daylight helps improve productivity and has the added bonus of improving the overall wellbeing of your staff.
So, open your blinds, clear off your windowsills, hose down your skylights and let the free light shine in. It’s not only your energy bills that will feel the difference.
- Ensure that windows and skylights are clean.
- Remove furniture and other obstructions from near windows.
- Mount blinds and curtains above or to the side of windows so that they do not obstruct light when they are not in use.
- Locate as many desk-based workers near to windows as possible. The best orientation for desks is at right angles to windows, as illustrated below.
2. Automate your lighting
Automation is often the best way to prevent lights being left on unnecessarily. There are three main forms of automatic control – presence detection, daylight control and timers.
It’s worth bearing in mind that it’s not always necessary to rewire lighting to take advantage of these automated forms of lighting control.
If you are a Scottish SME, Business Energy Scotland can provide you with free and impartial support and access to funding to help you take advantage of lighting automation in your workplace.
Presence detection
Passive infra-red (PIR), microwave or ultrasonic detectors can be used to detect whether someone is present in an area and to switch on lights accordingly. The most common technology is PIR. Presence detection is ideal for intermittently occupied areas such as WCs, storerooms, meeting rooms and communication areas.
When considering presence detection, things to bear in mind include:
- Positioning of sensors – this is critical because lights need to come on just before someone enters a space, not after. This is also linked to lamp selection – lamps need to illuminate immediately and not take a while to attain full brightness.
- Manual override – this is necessary so that lights can be turned off or switched on if there is an obstruction between the sensor and the occupants.
- Toilet cubicles are designed to be private, and occupants aren’t ‘seen’ by sensors. Therefore, sufficiently long switch-on times – usually 7-10 minutes should be used in these areas. An alternative is to add more sensors to the same lighting circuit that work on heat, not movement.
The most efficient approach is to have lights that are switched on manually but switch off automatically if no movement is detected – known as manual on, auto off.
Daylight control
In daylight control systems, photocells are used to detect when there is sufficient daylight and to switch off artificial light accordingly.
Some systems can dim lights and supplement natural lighting where necessary. For this technique to be successful, lighting subcircuits need to be separated so that photocells cover just the areas by windows where there is most natural light.
As with presence detection systems, manual override may be required. Sensors should be cleaned regularly, and this can be worked into your cleaning, lighting maintenance or facilities management contract should you have one.
Timers
Timers are particularly useful in retail applications where, for example, shop windows are illuminated during the evening when pedestrians continue to pass by. Foot traffic decreases during an evening so timers can be used to switch lights off at a certain time.
3. Control external lighting
It is essential that exterior lights are not operating and wasting energy during daylight when they are not needed. Therefore, as a minimum, all exterior lights, whether installed for decorative or safety purposes, should be controlled by a daylight sensor.
Integral daylight and motion sensors are common on individual fittings but, if they are absent on yours, then a daylight sensor, timer or motion sensor should be fitted. It is worth noting that some timers need reprogramming when the seasons change. Others can be linked to a daylight sensor which automatically detects dawn and dusk, so the timer operates within these times.
In some cases, the most effective method of control may be to split the exterior circuits. In this way, a small number of lights operate permanently to show, for example, the layout of a car park, while the remainder switch on when a person is detected.
4. Upgrade to energy efficient lamps (you might know them as bulbs)
The lamp is the part of the lighting unit that emits the light. Old incandescent lamps were often known as bulbs, though this term does not accurately describe many modern lamps such as light emitting diodes (LEDs).
LEDs are more energy efficient than their predecessors, turn on instantly (making automation easier), have longer life and are available to fit almost every light fitting.
Lamp technology has evolved rapidly in recent years, and it is a good idea to keep lamp selection under regular review as technology may continue to improve.
When working with a lighting supplier and choosing your lamp, there are two key things to consider – lighting levels and colour temperatures.
How much illumination is needed?
Could you save money by reducing lighting in areas that don’t need as much illumination, such as corridors and storage spaces?
The lux is the standard unit used to measure light levels and can be easily measured with a simple lux meter or app. The results can then be compared with the minimum levels recommended by the Health and Safety Executive (Lighting at work – HSG38).
Ultimately, you are looking to provide suitable lighting across your workplace, without any over lighting and wasting electricity.
What colour temperature is right in your workplace?
When considering replacing lamps, it’s also worth noting that different lamps produce different colour temperatures – how ‘warm’ (softer, yellower) or ‘cool’ (bluer, more intense) the light that it emits is.
Colour temperature is conventionally expressed in kelvins.
The best way to find out what colour of light suits your environment is to test out recommended lamps and to see what works best. If you have an office, ask staff what they prefer. For retailers, particularly those in the food industry, check to see what temperature displays your products best.
In some cases, if you want to upgrade to a more energy efficiency LED lamp, you may have to change the fitting. The cost of the fitting needs to be considered in any payback calculation for your lighting upgrade.
You should also factor in the reduced maintenance costs associated with LEDS. With the life expectancy of LEDs being much longer than traditional technologies like halogen or incandescent lamps, they can be changed much less frequently. This can provide large cost savings where lamps are positioned in hard-to-reach places (such as floodlighting, production line and warehouse lighting) and that require specialist access equipment or even workplace shutdowns to replace a lamp that’s reached the end of its life.
Just how much could you save?
Installing LEDs is one of the most common measures businesses are undertaking to reduce energy costs – with the potential to cut energy bills by 75%, you can see why the technology is so popular.
To help you get started thinking about the savings you could make we have developed two free spreadsheet tools.
Our lighting costs calculator will help you take a bottom-up approach to assess how much your lighting is costing you now. Some management and carbon reduction teams in larger organisations like to know this to judge how much effort to put into this area, versus other saving opportunities.
Our lighting improvement calculator covers three common lighting projects and allows you to estimate the costs, savings and payback period were you to implement any of these projects in your workplace.
Free support and funding to help light up your business for less
If you are a Scottish SME, Business Energy Scotland is here to provide you with free and impartial support and access to funding to help your workplace advantage of all the latest lighting technology.
We have a team of experienced advisors that has already helped hundreds of organisations across Scotland improve their lighting and reduce associated energy costs. Some examples include:
- The Water of Leith Visitor Centre in Edinburgh has almost halved its energy bill
- Kelvinside Electronics in Kilsyth is already saving over £8,750 a year
- Cambuslang-based BookSource has slashed its annual bill by over £16,000
- Scottish retailers, The Village Store and Goldenacre Mini Market, have saved by upgrading their lighting
Get support today and we’ll write a detailed report showing you how much you could save too.