Five ways in which LED lighting can improve your company’s profitability

When exploring the possibilities of a new lighting system, it’s only natural that one of your first considerations will be the price. Indeed, the question of how much a lighting system will cost is one that we’ve discussed a number of times. What happens when we turn that question around, however? Can a lighting system help you to turn a profit? If so, how?

In this post, we look at five key ways in which LED lighting can actually boost the bottom line of your business or organisation. From lower maintenance costs to improved productivity, let’s investigate some of the compelling commercial benefits that a high-quality LED lighting system can deliver.

1. Longer lifespans equate to significant savings

As with any asset that you purchase, the longer it lasts, the lower its ultimate cost becomes. While lighting systems as a whole don’t tend to need replacing all that often, there are still two important things to think about when it comes to longevity: maintenance costs and bulbs.

Naturally, the more often that repairs need to be made, and the more frequently that bulbs or components need to be replaced, the greater the overall cost of a lighting solution. That becomes all the more apparent when we compare the lifespan of LED luminaires against some of the alternatives on the market.

LED luminaires have an impressive lifespan compared to alternatives on the market. While a metal-halide light would need to be replaced every two or three years, one LED luminaire has a ten to twelve year lifespan. This longevity means significant savings for your business, in terms of both maintenance costs and productivity.

2. Reduced power consumption cuts back on energy costs

Commercial energy costs have soared in recent years, and the transition from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme to the Energy Bills Discount Scheme looks set to reduce the amount of support that the UK’s smaller organisations receive with their bills[1]. With that in mind, reductions in a company’s power consumption can have a major impact on profitability.

Again, LEDs offer major advantages here. Compared with older alternatives like metal-halide and high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, LEDs have been shown to reduce power consumption by as much as 70%. Best of all, this is a saving that starts from day one, and will continue to deliver no matter how energy prices fluctuate.

Around the world, Midstream Lighting’s own customers are saving tens of thousands – if not more – on their energy bills every year.

3. Better performance enables longer operational hours

No matter whether you run a major international airport or a small, community-focused sports centre, the more use that you can get out of your facilities, the more profitable they stand to be. When lights don’t perform at their peak capability, however, poor visibility can lead to limitations or shutdowns – cutting off that source of revenue.

In addition to being cheaper to run, LED lighting systems also deliver a better standard of lighting than alternative solutions. The performance of a metal halide lamp can drop by more than 30% after just 5,000 hours of use, for instance. An LED equivalent, meanwhile, can be run for ten times that amount before its performance deteriorates to any significant degree.

By delivering better visibility for longer, LEDs give you the ability to get the most out of your facilities, maximising your revenue opportunities in the process.

4. No warmup time helps to minimise wastage

Time is money, as the old adage goes. Building on the point above, any time spent waiting for a lighting system to switch on is time that could otherwise have been spent on core business activities. What’s more, warmup times elongate usage periods and increase power consumption; a fractional difference at first, but one that quickly mounts up over the years.

A standard HPS lamp can take as long as 10 minutes to warm up, and a metal-halide one as long as 20 minutes to reach its maximum light output. LEDs, on the other hand, can be switched on (and off) instantaneously. As well as helping to maximise uptime, this also prevents lights from needing to be left running during short periods of inactivity.

This has a dual impact for businesses. Firstly, activity can begin the very moment that your lights are turned on. Secondly, you’ll only ever pay for the light that you’re actively using. If efficiency is a path to profitability, then LEDs are an excellent place to start.

5. Higher quality drives greater productivity

High quality lighting doesn’t just enable organisations to keep their facilities open for longer; it also ensures that their people can work as productively as possible, too. Well-lit facilities empower faster and safer working, ensuring that employees can focus on the task at hand rather than straining to see what they are doing.

While this is true of any location, it becomes even more important in busy, high-traffic, and potentially dangerous spaces such as airports and sea terminals. Not only does LED lighting deliver the brilliance needed to light these areas effectively, its superior colour rendering capabilities ensure that the people on the ground have a true picture of what is going on around them.

People aren’t the only thing that LED lighting systems can affect, of course. In the horticultural sector, LEDs can help to dramatically reduce cultivation times and improve crop yields, enabling professional growers to maximise the value of their efforts. LEDs can even be tailored specifically for different plants and stages of the growth cycle, allowing for even greater results.

If you’d like to learn more about how our LEDs can help you improve the profitability of your own organisation, please get in touch.

[1] Business energy bill support to be reduced after March, Treasury confirms – The Guardian, 9th January 2023