Most modern consumers these days understand that energy efficient lighting, such as LED bulbs and fixtures, can potentially cut energy bill costs by a significant margin. They’ve heard it from their friends, fellow businesses, or directly from lighting distributors trying to sell their products, but sometimes the message doesn’t get through. When it comes to making the investment in energy efficient lighting, many still feel hesitant about taking the plunge. We suspect that many consumers are wary to invest in energy efficient LEDs because they don’t have enough information about how much they can save by making the switch, or can apply that knowledge to see how it’ll affect their home or business. The ins and outs of how energy efficient lighting saves money unfortunately just doesn’t seem to be common knowledge. Many consumers have seen advertisements from plenty of lighting companies telling them to buy LED products so they can save big percentages on their energy bills and replace their lighting less. Though this information is helpful to know, many people want to know exactly how much energy efficient lighting like LEDs can save them. To educate you more on the methods in which modern lighting will save you money, we’ve broken down the different ways it cuts costs in your home and business. We believe that when it comes to making the switch, time is of the essence. Your savings will multiply every month you use energy efficient lighting, making every day you wait costly to your bank account. We hope that this knowledge will empower you to make the right decision for your home or business and make the upgrade to energy efficient lighting. By investing in an LED retrofit or brand new LED lighting, you’ll save money that you’ve been wasting on energy-wasting technologies such as incandescent lights. Here are the many different ways in which energy efficient lighting such as LEDs save you money: Saving Money with Energy Usage The first way that energy efficient lighting like LEDs can save you money is by cutting down the energy you’ll use in the various light fixtures or bulbs you have in your home or commercial space. They do this by cutting down the wattage used by individual bulbs and fixtures to project the necessary light for your space. In a lighting comparison done by The Simple Dollar between incandescent, fluorescent, and LED technology, the price of operating the different lighting technologies for 25,000 hours was calculated. The incandescent bulb they used for the study was 60 watts, the CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) was 14 watts, while the LED only used 10 watts, meaning that only ⅙ the amount of energy was needed to operate the LED compared to the incandescent. Based on this information alone, it’s obvious that there will be a drastically different cost for the technologies. The study found that at a cost of $0.12 per kWh (kilowatt hour), the incandescent bulb cost $180 dollars to operate. The fluorescent, on the other hand, cost $42 to operate during that time span. Even more efficient was the LED, which cost a low $30 to run for 25,000 hours. That’s a saving of $150 for just one bulb. When you analyze this study and many others there is no doubt that energy efficient lighting not only cuts costs, but saves you significant money on your energy bill. According to recent estimates by energy.gov, LEDs use 25%–30% of the energy and last 8 to 25 times longer than halogen incandescents. Over time that’s a lot of savings. Saving Money with Less Bulb Maintenance and Replacement Not only do LED bulbs cut down on the amount of kilowatt hours you’ll use every month, but they need to be replaced much less than other bulbs. In the study that The Simple Dollar did comparing incandescent, fluorescent, and LED lights, they found that over those 25,000 hours of use, 21 incandescent bulbs were needed. Compare that with 1 LED bulb for that whole time span and you’ve got a really impressive statistic. This means that even if the LED bulb is more expensive at the store, over time you’ll save money because you won’t have to replace it over and over again like you have to do with incandescent lighting. Plus, when you consider that a 25,000 hour life span is on the low end of how long LEDs last, you can save even more money on bulb replacement by investing in LEDs that last anywhere from 50,000 to 75,000 hours. Another hidden cost is the labor and time it takes to replace bulbs, especially in hard to reach places like high ceilings and a host of warehouse and industrial applications. Saving that time and energy means you’ll have more resources to apply yourself to other, more important tasks. Save Money with LED Retrofitting Another way to save money is by retrofitting your existing fixtures with LEDs, avoiding the costs of buying brand-new fixtures while also keeping the design of your various spaces. It’s a win-win both for your budget and your aesthetic sensibilities, especially if you like the look and feel of your current lighting fixtures. Shine Retrofits offers an extensive list of LED retrofit lighting kits that will help you upgrade your existing fixtures to LEDs. If you have any questions about the retrofitting process, our team of lighting experts would be glad to help you save money upfront while also enjoying the various cost-cutting benefits of using LED technology on a daily basis. Other Ways to Save There are even more ways to save with energy efficient lighting technologies such as LEDs. One is to, along with your various energy efficient lights, implement daylight harvesting techniques. These techniques make the most out of daylight your space receives from the sun, allowing you to operate your lights less often and save even more energy. With our daylight harvesting guide, you can design your space to maximize the sun’s light, balancing that out with energy efficient LEDs to save even more money. Resources for Energy Efficiency To help guide you further along on your energy efficient lighting journey, we’ve provided a few more resources on ways you can minimize costs and and streamline your lighting: Shine Retrofits provides a step-by-step Guide to Energy Efficiency that will lead you through the process of analyzing your current lighting and investing in new technology that will help you save money. On this guide you can scroll through an infographic that details steps you can take to determine your current energy usage levels and pinpoint areas where more energy efficient technology can make a huge difference in your home or commercial space. When you’re buying LED lights or retrofit kits for your home or commercial space, it’s also important to make sure you’re getting quality products. That’s why Shine Retrofits carries DesignLights Consortium (DLC) Certified LED lighting products. Carefully analyzed by lighting experts with years of experience in the industry, DLC-Certified products are the highest-quality energy efficient lights available today. Take a look at the list of products on our DLC page. Make the switch to energy efficiency today! Our lighting experts at Shine Retrofits are here to help you. We have an extensive list of retrofit kits, LED bulbs, and LED light fixtures available for purchase. If you have any questions about our catalog or about which lighting product is right for you, our team of lighting experts are standing by to guide you. Call 1-800-983-1315 anytime Monday through Friday, from 6am to 6pm Mountain Standard Time, for help getting started with your LED retrofit today. We can’t wait to hear from you!