Power costs are one of the fastest rising costs for households and businesses alike, so an obvious strategy is to try to reduce electricity consumption. Recently, new lighting technology based on LEDs, which can potentially make a substantial reduction to the amount of power consumed for lighting, has become more widely available.

LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are a semiconductor light source which have been cropping up in all sorts of applications with one of the first being in television screens and computer monitors. More recently the LED technology has been developed to provide an alternative light source to incandescent and halogen bulbs and fluorescent tubes.

Some of the potential benefits of LED technology are:

• Reduced electricity usage being up to 90% more efficient than some alternatives
• Long life span with reports up to 50,000 hours
• Less need for ongoing maintenance
• Low heat production reducing air-conditioning costs
• Instant constant light – no warm up period or flickering and
• Completely recyclable with no mercury or harmful substances

Wealth Experience was approached by Ledtek with a proposal to change over office lighting to LED technology. Ledtek provide the most efficient lighting solution in the market in a commercial, industrial or domestic environment, offering a two year warranty to illustrate confidence in the long-term performance and reliability of their fixtures.

One of the current negatives for LED lighting is that it costs substantially more initially than the conventional alternatives. The proposal projected a payback period of just over 2 years on this higher initial cost including installation. Once this payback period has passed there should be significant ongoing savings resulting from the estimated 60% lower power consumption of the LEDs compared with the existing fluorescent lighting.

It was decided to trial the LED lighting in the Stanthorpe office, to make sure that it worked effectively in practice. During installation staff noticed that the LED lights appeared whiter than existing fluorescent lights, which appeared yellowish in comparison, however it didn’t take long for everyone to get used to the new lights.

It is important to monitor that the projected benefits in reduced electricity use do actually happen, so we will be comparing the Stanthorpe office’s current year’s power bills to the corresponding periods last year. Over shorter time frames other factors such as weather conditions can affect power use but we are hoping that we will be able to pick up the expected reduction in electricity consumption over the course of this year.

If you have any queries or would like further information regarding this process, please do not hesitate to contact our office.