“It’s one of those improvements that makes sense from every angle,” states Nick Wilson, ACI’s Purchasing Manager. “When we reviewed our site and were shown that not only the money we would save but also the reduction in downtime for repairing broken standard lights and the concentration benefits for our staff, switching from standard lighting to LED was the obvious choice.
“Lighting is a huge overhead for us,” adds Nick, “but now our annual costs will reduce from around £5,000 per year to £1,500 per year. That’s a huge reduction – £42,000 over the expected lifespan the lights. I’d advise any business that has considerable lighting costs to make the switch.”
“Perhaps even more important than the cost savings though is the improvement to our working environment. LED lighting is bright and more powerful, runs much cooler than traditional lights, and its clarity helps employees work more accurately and focus without straining their eyes. They’re also ideal for workers who get headaches and migraines in environments that use traditional ‘flickering’ lighting.”
Nick concludes: “The new LED lighting works perfectly alongside the Solar PV system we had installed in 2013 too, as both serve to lower the company’s electricity bills and reduce our carbon emissions.”
The full system cost £15,000, but Air Control Industries received a financial contribution of almost £4,000 towards this from the Carbon Trust Green Business Fund. The grant had to be spent using one of the trust’s accredited suppliers. The savings mean that the system will have ‘paid for itself’ in just over two-and-a-half years.