Holland Board of Public Works Vice President Justin Lamb recently remarked that retrofitting to LEDs “might not actually lower a business’s electric bill”.

Can this be true?

Yes and no. The context of this statement matters.

Increasing energy demand is leading to an increase in energy cost. As such, the possibility exists that your electric bill may not decrease, but only because the cost of kilowatt hours is rising. If you were to remain with your existing, non-efficient bulbs, your bill would, beyond any doubt, increase as the cost of energy increases.

But what are the odds that you “may” not see a decrease in your electric bill? Fairly low.

Electric companies are extremely unlikely to raise the cost of electricity by a percentage on par with the reduction in energy use associated with LED lighting, within one billing year. Retrofitting with LEDs can save commercial or industrial businesses, whose average electric bill is 40 percent lighting, approximately 50 to 90 percent of their overall lighting costs. Furthermore, as LED adoption continues to grow (75 percent worldwide by 2020), it reduces—or at the very least slows—the load on electric systems.  With increased demand comes expansion and therefore increased infrastructure spending for the electric companies paid for, in part, by the end user. However, since the low wattage required by LEDs significantly reduces the demand on the system, the rate of expansion is slowed which, in turn, slows the increase of electricity costs.

So while Justin Lamb’s statement has the possibility of being true, it’s highly unlikely. But the odds are much better than remaining with existing, inefficient light bulbs, as the cost will rise with the increasing cost of energy.

For an analysis of the savings you can achieve by switching to LEDs, use our free Savings Calculator.