Why Introducing Green Lighting Into Your Business Is A Good Idea

If you are a business owner, then you are always looking for ways to save money and attract customers. One such way of doing both is to introduce green lighting into your business. Now, as this Melbourne Morning Herald article details, many businesses have made the switch over to environmentally-friendly lighting, but not every business has; this is especially true for small businesses. If you are not yet convinced of the value of energy efficient lighting, we encourage you to read this post and see all the value associated with energy efficient lighting.

It saves you money

As a business owner, you are always looking for ways to save a bit of money here and there. This is even truer if you are a small business owner because your margins of profit tend to be a bit smaller. Energy efficient lighting can help you save a bit of money in a couple of different ways. Now, you won’t be saving a huge amount of money, but every little bit helps and moving over to energy efficient lighting certainly does help.

For starters, you will spend a lot less money on actually lighting up your business. Energy efficient light bulbs tend to use a lot less energy than regular, inefficient light bulbs. For example, CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) use roughly a quarter of the energy used by regular bulbs. So, if you have multiple inefficient light bulbs in your business (and it is safe to say that you probably do) then you can save a respectable chunk of money on your monthly energy bill by switching over to energy efficient light bulbs like CFLs, halogens, or LEDs.

If you combine energy efficient light bulbs with other strategies to save money on your monthly energy bill, like saying turning off lights when not in the room and turning off appliances that are only in standby mode, then you can end up cutting a huge chunk off your energy bill. Given that energy prices in Australia are already pretty high and given the fact that they may go up in the years to come, switching over to energy-efficient light bulbs may be a good way of mitigating the extra money you need to spend on energy.
But, that is not the only way that switching over to energy efficient light bulbs will help you save money. You will also save money because energy efficient bulbs need to be replaced far less often than regular light bulbs. For example, many commercial LED light bulbs claim that they can last for tens of thousands of hours (in some cases, certain LED light bulbs claim that they can last for around 50,000 hours).

Furthermore, they do not actually lose their ability to provide light as they get used. Now, we know that paying for light bulb replacement is probably not a big part of your budget, but the fact that LED light bulbs could potentially last for 50,000 hours means that you do not have to replace them for quite a while. A single year has about 8,700 hours in it. This means that a single LED light bulb could last you for around 5 years, so the savings do add up over time. Find a comprehensive breakdown of the pros and cons of the different lights here.
Finally, you may also be eligible for rebates depending on what state you live in and what your situation is. This helpful site explains all the various rebates you can take advantage of. Just click that you are a business, click the state you live in, and click that you are interested in energy rebates. The rebates are unlikely to be huge, but they can result in you getting a nice little bit of change in your pocket every month, so it is worth a try.

It helps attract customers

We said in the beginning that one of the reasons why you want to make the switch over to green lighting is because they help you attract customers. You may be wondering how exactly they do that. Well, the answer is quite simple. See, more and more people are becoming energy conscious and that will inform their shopping habits.

Being able to advertise to people and the community around you that you are environmentally conscious as well could be a good way of drawing attention to your business and drawing in customers who want to support environmentally friendly businesses. We do not mean to mislead you and say that switching over to energy efficient lighting will lead to hordes of customers beating down your door, but it might help sway some people and as we said at the beginning of this article, every little bit helps.

What kind of energy efficient lighting should I choose?

If this post has convinced you to make the switch over to green lighting, then you may be wondering what kind of lighting you should use. There are several different kinds of energy efficient light bulbs out there. You can choose LEDs (light emitting diodes), halogens, or CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs). All three of these light bulbs are energy efficient and are far better for the environment and your wallet than old school light bulbs, like incandescent light bulbs.

Halogens contain mercury, which turns some people off (but trust us when say that they are completely safe, you just need to be careful if they break), but they are also the closest in design and appearance to traditional incandescent bulbs, so a lot of people like them for that reason. LEDs and CFLs are both good options for those who want to save money. Both are extremely energy efficient and last for a long time. Each has their own downsides, however.

For example, CFLs do not turn on right away and require a few minutes before they reach their full lighting potential. LEDs, on the other hand, give off a blue light that some people find annoying and some business owners may not like the atmosphere created by LEDs.

So, ultimately the decision is up to you, one way or the other.