Lighting

Lighting is one of the biggest areas for potential energy savings

In offices there is potential to save up to 40% of your energy costs associated with lighting.

And in industrial settings good design and control can save up to 75% of industrial buildings lighting costs.

Getting the lighting right also has other benefits including:

  • Improving staff morale
  • Increasing productivity
  • Avoiding workplace accidents.

Improving office lighting

Lighting uses about one third of the total energy used by a commercial building.

There are a number of no-cost or low-cost actions you can take to reduce the amount of energy used for lighting your office including:

  • Turn off lights that are not needed - especially those in foyers, toilets and cupboards
  • Install direct sensors, controls and timers in areas that are not used all the time
  • Use daylight - pull up window shades and lay out desks and other equipment to make the most of natural light
  • Maintain the lighting system including keeping lamps, diffusers and fixtures clean
  • Make sure the level of lighting is correct for your workplace and selectively reduce the number of lamps in over-lit areas
  • Replace fluorescent lamps in bulk with triphosphor fluorescent lamps which give out more light.
  • Replace incandescent bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps, particularly for lights used more than four hours a day.

Improving industrial lighting

Good lighting design and control can save up to 75% of an industrial building's lighting costs.

The first step is to turn off unnecessary lights. Frequent switching reduces the life of fluorescent lamps, but reduced running hours means the lamps last longer. It's economical to turn off fluorescent lights if they are not required for more than 10 minutes.  High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps have long start/restart times, so it's not a good idea to turn them off for short periods. However if there's enough natural light they can be turned off.

Other no-cost and low-cost actions you can take to reduce lighting operating costs:

  • Use daylight - industrial and storage buildings can often take advantage of daylight through skylights and clear roofing panels
  • Maintain and clean the lighting system - it's important to clean light fittings in industrial buildings, as light levels can drop dramatically when dirty.

Improved lighting in action 

Read examples of New Zealand businesses benefiting from more efficient lighting.

Westpac Bank invested in re-tubing and associated lighting changes that generate ongoing annual savings of $135,000.

ANZ Bank reduced the number of lighting tubes in its offices without loss of light quality. Total savings on lighting are estimated to be $1.6 million.

More information

From the Resource Centre

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