Reduce lighting costs in your business

12/11/2024

Lighting can account for 10–25% of your bill. For some businesses, it can be as high as 50%. The figures on this page come from our Boosting Business Productivity program. We worked with more than 300 businesses to explore their energy use and minimise their energy cost.

Measure your current lighting levels

There’s an Australian standard (AS/NZ 1680.1:2006) that determines what illuminance light levels are required in certain work areas.

To measure your current light levels, hire or purchase a quality light meter and compare the results with the recommended illuminance in the following table.

Recommended illuminance (Lux)	Areas and activities
40	Corridors, walkways.
80	Change rooms, cleaners' rooms, internal stairs, loading bays, locker storage, toilets.
160	Bathing rooms, cafeteria and kitchen area, entrance halls, lobbies and foyers, waiting rooms.
240	Food preparation areas, medium woodwork, photocopying, training and seminar.
320	Meeting rooms, office work.
400	Fine woodwork.
600	Colour matching, drafting, fine machine work, inspection tasks, laboratories, painting.
800	Colour matching of dyes, fine inspection tasks.
1200	Extra fine bench work, graphic arts inspection.
1600	Jewellery and watch making.

Ways to reduce your lighting consumption

The goal to reducing your lighting consumption is to optimise your existing system to get the maximum efficiency out of it.

1. Switch to LED lighting

LED lighting is more than 60% efficient than fluorescent and halogen lighting, and significantly reduces your maintenance costs.

A LED downlight can last up to 50,000 hours, which is 25 times longer than a halogen light.

Not only are LEDs more efficient, but they’re also safer. Halogen downlights can heat up to 370°C which can be a fire risk and impact your air-conditioning costs.

The cost of switching to LED can take less than two years to pay for itself.

On average, switching to LED lighting will:

- cost less than $14,000 to implement

- save more than $4000 annually

- take less than 3 years to pay back

- save more than 30 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

2. Switch off lights

Lighting a room you’re not using is a waste of energy.

Encourage your staff to switch off lights every time they exit a room or leave for the day. Add ‘switch off’ stickers near light switches and building exits.

3. Install motion detectors and timers

Instead of relying on your staff to switch off lights, install a system that will do the work for you.

Motion detectors can save:

- 15–35% in an open office

- 20–65% in meeting rooms

- 30–90% in toilets

- 50–90% in warehouses

- 45–80% in storage rooms.

Though installing motion detectors and timers will cost money, they’re guaranteed to save money.

On average, installing motion detectors and timers will:

- cost less than $3000 to implement

- save more than $1000 annually

- take less than 3 years to pay back

- save more than 5 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

4. Zone your lighting

If you have multiple lights in a large area controlled by one switch, an electrician can section your lighting into zones. This allows you to only light areas that are being used.

5. Remove unnecessary light globes (delamping)

A cost-effective way to lower the lighting levels in areas that are overlit, is by removing globes or lamps.

6. Maximise daylight

Natural light is free to use. To make the most of it:

- keep your windows clean

- install skylights, solar tubes or translucent roof sheeting

- move workspaces to naturally lit areas

- move cupboards, bookcases or anything that blocks natural night

- use light colours on walls and ceilings

- install photosensors to automatically adjust lighting depending on the natural light available.

For more information about lighting, download the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage guide to lighting (PDF, 235kB).

According to sustainability.vic.gov.au