“It’s only lighting”, you say? “How much thought really needs to go into the decision?” Since I am not fond of sugar-coating, I’m here to tell you that you can’t afford to be glib about your lighting purchase.

In today’s society, we tend to take artificial lighting for granted. As long as a light bulb illuminates a given area satisfactorily and doesn’t make us physically uncomfortable, we don’t usually give it much attention. Since the majority of us have lived almost exclusively under the glow of incandescent bulbs, we have become comfortable with Edison’s hundred-year old technology and the costs that come with it. But with governments around the world mandating new energy-efficient standards for light bulbs—which incandescent bulbs do not meet—everyone is going to have to buy into a new lighting technology.

So, where do you begin? These basic three questions should give you a running start:

1.       What other mainstream and market-ready lighting technologies exist and what are the pros and cons of each*?

Linear fluorescent

Pros: inexpensive, long lasting, energy efficient

Cons: light quality, affected by on/off power cycling, flickering, contain toxins

CFL

Pros: inexpensive, long lasting, energy efficient

Cons: light quality; flickering; affected by cold temperatures and on/off power cycling; contain toxins

LED

Pros: long lasting, energy efficient, light quality, suitable in cold environments and for multiple applications

Cons: expensive, lack of standards means the quality varies between manufacturers

Note: See 5 reasons why LED lamps are better than CFLs for a more in-depth comparison between LED and CFL bulbs.

* Halogen is a type of incandescent technology and some bulbs are already being pulled from the shelves because they do not meet the mandated energy-efficiency standards. As such, we are not including this technology.

 

2.       Will this purchase help me achieve my primary lighting needs?

This is really important. What do you most hope to achieve with your lighting? Perhaps you need a high quality light that displays your goods beautifully? Or maybe you need to achieve high energy efficiency so you can reduce your operational costs and focus on your core business? Whatever the need, you need to define it and then realize it may come at the expense of something else. You need to be able to weigh your needs accordingly. It might help to look at the below table to assist you with the decision-making process.

	Linear fluorescent	CFL	LED
Energy efficient?	yes	yes	yes
Inexpensive?	yes	yes	no
High light quality?	no	no	yes
Environmentally friendly	no	no	yes
Long lasting?	20-40x longer than incandescent	10x longer than incandescent	20x longer than incandescent

 

3.       When should I make the purchase? Do I swap my bulbs out now or wait for them to burn out and replace them individually?

This is a question I am asked all the time.  And the truth is it really depends on what you answered in #2: what is your primary lighting need? For example, let’s take a look from an economic perspective.

• Change out right away: The sooner you change out the bulb, the sooner you start saving electricity costs (any technology is more efficient than incandescent, but this is especially true for LED!). In the case of an LED MR16 that runs 24×7, you will save approximately $40 of electricity per bulb each year (depending on the electricity rate).
• Wait until a bulb burns out first: This way you delay the costs of purchasing the new lighting technology for several weeks or months. In the case of an incandescent bulb running 24×7, this affords you approximately 6 weeks.

But here is the big problem with waiting for your existing bulbs to burn out—especially for those who care about light quality as much as we do: if you replace the old bulbs with the new bulbs on a one-for-one basis, your space will be a mixture of different types of lighting. Each lighting type emits a different light (beam pattern, colour, etc.), leaving you with a rather ugly lighting design.

So while the answer to switch all at once or on a one-to-one burnt-out basis depends on your primary lighting needs, our advice at Leapfrog is usually to switch all at once. Why?

• delaying of the upfront capital costs for a few weeks/months amounts to a rather small savings and is therefore inconsequential (unless of course, you are cash-strapped and cannot afford the purchase)
• displaying conflicting, uncomplimentary lighting from different sources has the potential to reflect poorly on your business or operation
• saving electricity costs quickly is a good thing
• changing all at once gets the job done quickly and is more time effective for the staff

If you don’t ask yourself—and answer—these three questions, you’ll never be satisfied with your lighting purchase decision. Always make sure you cover the basics so doubt never rears its ugly head.