Impress Media Australia has slashed more than $500 from its annual power bill by replacing 80 fluorescent globes and tubes with LED lighting at its office.

The lighting overhaul also eliminates the need to regularly clamber up and down stepladders to change light globes as LED lights are predicted to last for 50,000 hours each – that’s more than 24 years of 40-hour working weeks!

While LEDs have replaced incandescent and fluorescent bulbs for many uses, such as traffic lights, flashlights and reading lamps in recent, the availability of compact fluorescent bulbs and fittings increasingly make them the best long-term choice for commercial and even residential lighting.

Impress Media selected LED lighting specialist Steve Hay of Electrical Solutions and LED Lighting to review its existing lighting, relocate a number of existing downlights and replace existing fluorescent lighting with LEDs.

As an example, in one 6x4-metre office, Steve replaced two fluoro tubes and four fluoro globes with five 18-watt LED downlights. As well as reducing power consumption from about 160 watts per hour to just 90 watts –less power than a single 100-watt incandescent globe – it boosted the amount of light in the room by more than 50 per cent, from less than 300 lumens to about 450 lumens.

Impress Media managing director John Harris said the lower power costs would take about three years to pay back the investment. “What I’m most happy about is not having to change any more bulbs,” he explained.

For more information about LED lighting, visit the Electrical Solutions and LED Lighting websote at http://electricalsolutionsandleds.com/.