The benefits of LED lights are well established. Compared to older metal halide lighting, they last longer, need less maintenance and, pound for pound, provide better light quality. And, of course, they’re more energy efficient. Which matters as energy costs climb and sports clubs and facilities feel the pinch.
But there’s another – huge – benefit that’s often overlooked. LED lights turn on and off immediately.
Warm-up costs add up
This may not sound particularly significant until you remember that conventional metal halide lights can take up to 30 minutes to get to full power. This means they’re using energy and costing clubs money for longer than you need. Over a year, that adds up.
But there’s more. To avoid damage to the system, the built-in safety features of these lights prevent you from turning them back on after being turned off. This means that sports facilities tend to leave them on all evening – even if there’s no one playing or you don’t have a booking for that session.
Doing the calculations
So, what does this mean in the real world? Let’s take a closer look at the avoidable costs of metal halide lights.
Based on lights being at full power for 1000 hours per year[1] – a typical amount of time for a busy sports facility – the cost of warm-up is approx. £92. If your facilities are lit by 16 lights, for example, that cost jumps to around £1,472 in warm-up time alone.
The costs go up as the number of lights increases. For larger stadia that often have in excess of 130 luminaires, warm-up costs would rise even more.
Of course, all these costs go away if you’re using LED lights – because they come up to full power instantly and can be turned on and off as you need.
Energy-saving takeaways
So, a move to a modern LED array means no more turning lights on early to wait for them to get up to full power, no more having to leave them on between bookings, and no more unnecessary costs. And because modern LED lights are more energy efficient, you’ll save up to 70% when the lights are on.
If you’d like us to carry out a free assessment to see how much your club or sports facility could save, get in touch.
[1] Metal halide energy cost based on £0.35 per kilowatt hour