Monday, 09/02/2026 | 21:09 GMT+7
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.
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. |
The goal to reducing your lighting consumption is to optimise your existing system to get the maximum efficiency out of it.
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:
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.
Instead of relying on your staff to switch off lights, install a system that will do the work for you.
Motion detectors can save:
Though installing motion detectors and timers will cost money, they’re guaranteed to save money.
On average, installing motion detectors and timers will:
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.
A cost-effective way to lower the lighting levels in areas that are overlit, is by removing globes or lamps.
Natural light is free to use. To make the most of it:
For more information about lighting, download the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage guide to lighting (PDF, 235kB).
According to sustainability.vic.gov.au
