Why Your Business Needs LEDs Installed by a Commercial Electrician

Building Size	Annual Commercial Building Savings with LEDs	Annual Industrial Building Savings with LEDs	Cost to switch to LED (hardware + estimated install cost)
1,000 sq. ft.	About $800 to $850	About $900 to $950	$1,400
10,000 sq. ft.	About $7,275 to $7,300	About $8,100 to $8,150	$14,000
100,000 sq. ft.	About $74,200 to $74,300	About $82,950 to $83,050	$140,000
1,000,000 sq. ft.	About $818,000 to $818,500	About $932,000 to $933,000	$1,400,000

Your commercial or industrial building needs proper lighting to run smoothly and keep everyone in your facility safe. However, traditional light bulbs are no longer cutting it, and they are costing you up to thousands of dollars.  LED lighting offers a strong solution. It doesn’t just light up large spaces better than traditional systems; it actually saves you money. Here’s how:

• Energy efficiency cuts lighting costs
• Longer lifespans reduce the number of replacements
• Improved visibility and workplace safety
• LEDs help buildings meet sustainability goals
• Customization and flexibility options

As a team of experienced commercial electricians, we’ve helped hundreds of commercial and industrial building owners make the switch from incandescent lighting to LED systems. And it wasn’t long before these locations started reaping the rewards. Let’s break down exactly how LED systems can save you money.

Energy Efficiency Cuts Lighting Costs

Commercial and industrial buildings use a large amount of energy to keep everything running smoothly. Every piece of equipment, HVAC system, lighting fixture, and more uses electricity to stay on, costing building owners up to tens of thousands of dollars a month. You can’t turn off your electricity, but you can switch to LED lighting to help reduce costs. In fact, according to SolarTech, LED bulbs consume 80-85% less electricity than incandescent bulbs. This results in a great decrease in your monthly electricity bill by about 13%. For example, commercial buildings of the following square footage see the estimated electricity bill change by upgrading to LED lighting:

Building size	Est. annual electric bill before LED switch	Est. annual savings	Est. monthly savings	Est. annual bill after LED switch
1,000 sq. ft.	$2,351	$309	$26	$2,042
10,000 sq. ft.	$17,968	$2,358	$197	$15,610
100,000 sq. ft.	$190,491	$25,002	$2,083	$165,489
1,000,000 sq. ft.	$2,485,840	$326,267	$27,189	$2,159,573

LED indoor and outdoor lighting are also designed with a higher lumens per watt (lm/W) ratio, meaning they naturally provide more light than traditional options like incandescent bulbs. More light per fixture means fewer light sources are needed, further reducing energy costs. LED lights also emit less heat than incandescent bulbs, meaning your building’s HVAC systems don’t have to run as hard to keep internal temperatures stable. LED installation by a commercial electrician doesn’t just save you money by using less energy, though.

Longer Lifespans Reduce Number of Replacements

Replacing light bulbs in commercial buildings can be a recurring, tedious, and expensive process that requires professional electrical services, depending on the fixture. And when you’ve got operations to run, changing light bulbs is the last thing on your mind. LEDs installed by a commercial electrician can help with this.

While incandescent bulbs only last about 1,000 hours, most LEDs can last 25,000 to 50,000 hours, depending on how they are used. This is roughly 40 days vs. 5.5 years if the indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures are kept running 24/7, or 50 incandescent light bulbs for every 1 LED light bulb. Why do LED lights last so much longer than incandescent ones? They are made of semiconductors, phosphors, and recyclable metals. These materials are able to withstand high temperatures, dust, mechanical vibrations, and fluctuating humidity levels, ensuring they last longer than incandescent bulbs. Since they are so durable, LED bulbs require fewer replacements by commercial electricians, saving building owners money. Here’s what each lighting system’s annual replacement cost looks like on average:

Building size	Incandescent cost over 25,000 hours	LED cost over 25,000 hours	Estimated replacement savings with LED	Cost to switch to LED (hardware + estimated install labor)
1,000 sq. ft.	$3,165	$90	$3,075	$1,400
10,000 sq. ft.	$31,650	$900	$30,750	$14,000
100,000 sq. ft.	$316,500	$9,000	$307,500	$140,000
1,000,000 sq. ft.	$3,165,000	$90,000	$3,075,000	$1,400,000

It should be noted that these costs don’t include the price of having a commercial electrician replace a building’s lighting, which is necessary for larger spaces. Regardless, LED lights require fewer replacements and therefore save building owners even more money on purchasing new bulbs and installing them. But LED indoor and outdoor lighting don’t just reduce costs because of their material.

Improved Visibility and Workplace Safety

Commercial and industrial buildings need strong indoor and outdoor lighting to keep operations running smoothly and the people working inside safe. According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, environments with poor lighting cause workers to misjudge the position, shape, or speed of objects. This greatly increases the risk of accidents in commercial and industrial buildings. Proper lighting, on the other hand, helps reduce eye fatigue, improves visibility of hazards, and prevents accidents. But do LEDs really provide that much more light than other bulbs? Yes, let’s break down how much light common bulbs give off:

• Incandescent bulbs: ~10–15 lumens per watt
• Halogen: ~15–25 lumens per watt
• CFL: ~45–70 lumens per watt
• LED: 75–120+ lumens per watt

Looking at each light bulb’s minimum, 1 LED bulb provides as much light as 7.5 incandescent bulbs, 5 halogen bulbs, and 1.5 compact fluorescent lamps. This means you could use up to 7.5 times fewer LEDs than incandescent bulbs and still have just as much light as you did before.

LEDs aren’t just safer because they provide more light. They are also made of safer materials. Traditional incandescent lights use hazardous components such as mercury. This means if the bulb breaks or is defective, hazardous material can contaminate your location, and a commercial electrician should be called immediately for emergency electrical repair. LED lights, on the other hand, don’t usually contain hazardous materials and are therefore safer for your working environment. These bright lights don’t just keep your building safe, though. They also help protect the environment.

LEDs Help Buildings Meet Sustainability Goals

If you’re on the fence about calling a commercial electrician to upgrade the lighting in your commercial building because it might be expensive, know that switching to LEDs can actually earn you money. If you use this electrical service in Kansas and switch to LED lighting, Evergy’s Business Energy Savings Program will offer up to $270 worth of incentives per light fixture upgrade. The following table shows the potential incentive savings for different sized commercial buildings:

Building Size	Estimated Fixtures	Commercial Interior, 4 ft Linear LED Lamps, $3 Per Lamp	Commercial Interior LED Fixtures, 4 ft 1 to 2 Lamp Fixture, $30 Per Fixture	Industrial HID 301 to 500W to LED Fixture, $100 Per Fixture	Industrial HID 501 to 850W to LED Fixture, $140 Per Fixture	Cost to switch to LED (hardware + estimated install labor)
1,000 sq. ft.	20	$60	$600	$2,000	$2,800	$1,400
10,000 sq. ft.	200	$600	$6,000	$20,000	$28,000	$14,000
100,000 sq. ft.	2,000	$6,000	$60,000	$200,000	$280,000	$140,000
1,000,000 sq. ft.	20,000	$60,000	$600,000	$2,000,000	$2,800,000	$1,400,000

These numbers are just estimates. The true amount of savings will depend on the type of light fixtures in your building, how many there are, and whether you qualify for the incentives.

Commercial and industrial buildings are also subject to federal, state, and local environmental codes that could cost owners money if not followed. LED indoor and outdoor lighting helps buildings meet these regulations by reducing lighting power density and overall electricity demand. Instead of having to spend up to millions of dollars in fines, mandatory compliance retrofits, or legal actions, building owners can instead invest in far less expensive electrical services to upgrade lighting.

Customization and Flexibility Options

Appearance is vital to commercial buildings, and even industrial buildings have specific lighting needs that must be met for efficiency and safety. LEDs offer a wide range of customization options that just don’t work as well with other light bulbs. For example, while incandescent bulbs lose their brightness over time when integrated with dimmers, LED lighting remains just as bright. When installed and configured by a commercial electrician, dimmable LED lighting could save your building hundreds to thousands of dollars:

Building Size	Estimated Fixtures	Annual Cost With Incandescent Bulbs	Annual Cost With LEDs, No Dimming	Annual Cost With LEDs + Dimming	Annual Savings vs Incandescent	Cost to switch to LED (hardware + estimated install cost)
1,000 sq. ft.	20	$486	$81	$57	$430	$1,400
10,000 sq. ft.	200	$4,864	$811	$567	$4,296	$14,000
100,000 sq. ft.	2,000	$48,636	$8,106	$5,674	$42,962	$140,000
1,000,000 sq. ft.	20,000	$486,360	$81,060	$56,742	$429,618	$1,400,000

While integrating dimmers and other customizations such as motion sensors, timers, and other smart controls may have a high initial cost, doing so with LED bulbs can save you a great deal in the long run.

Ready to Upgrade to LEDs? Landis Electric Makes the Transition Easy

Here’s the bottom line: hiring a commercial electrician to install LED lighting in your commercial or industrial building could save you thousands or even millions of dollars, as illustrated by the table below:

Building Size	Annual Commercial Building Savings	Annual Industrial Building Savings	Cost to switch to LED (hardware + estimated install cost)
1,000 sq. ft.	About $800 to $850	About $900 to $950	$1,400
10,000 sq. ft.	About $7,275 to $7,300	About $8,100 to $8,150	$14,000
100,000 sq. ft.	About $74,200 to $74,300	About $82,950 to $83,050	$140,000
1,000,000 sq. ft.	About $818,000 to $818,500	About $932,000 to $933,000	$1,400,000

While you may want to integrate these beneficial light sources immediately, it can be difficult to know where to start. You don’t have to figure it out alone. Landis Electric has over 25 years of experience in electrical services such as lighting upgrades and can determine the best way to help your building. Call to schedule a consultation and reap the rewards of switching to LED lighting.

LED Lighting Frequently Asked Questions