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Posted on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 01:30 PM by
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Many small businesses have already switched to energy-efficient lighting but there are still plenty of holdouts. Some business owners don’t like the look of twisty compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), or they find LEDs and CFLs light too glaringly bright. Higher upfront costs of new lighting technologies scare away others. However, it’s worth taking a new look at energy-efficient lighting, if you haven’t already.
The prices of many energy-efficient bulbs, including CFLs and LEDs, have fallen substantially – and are expected to continue falling. Payback times of many lighting upgrades is now under two or three years. Not to mention that inefficient lights emit much of their energy as heat rather than actual light. So they can drive up air-conditioning costs in the summer months. Here’s a look at the potential cost savings of making the switch: Say you have one 60-watt incandescent light bulb that stays on for 60 hours per week and thus uses 3,600 watts per week. That’s 187,200 watts per year, or 1,872 kilowatts. If you pay 10-cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, that bulb costs you roughly $19 per year. Multiply that across 10 incandescent bulbs, and you’re looking at an annual lighting electricity cost of about $190. Replacing those 10 bulbs with 14-watt CFLs might cost $20. But you would pay only about $44 in electricity each year – a $136 annual electricity savings. (The standard price of LEDs is still quite a bit higher – perhaps $20 per bulb – but that is expected to drop substantially in coming years.) The technology of efficient lighting is also evolving quickly. Some businesses have refrained from moving to efficient lighting because they use dimmer switches, which haven’t generally worked with CFLs. But with the advent of LEDs and better dimmable CFLs, it’s more of an option these days. Read more about choosing light bulbs and the options in Consumer Report’s Light Bulb Buying Guide. It’s also worth checking with your utility company about incentives. Many utilities now provide incentives to commercial customers that install efficient lights, sometimes covering up to 70% project costs. That may generate payback times of under six months. You can find out if your utility offers incentives at the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. Have you installed energy-efficient lights at your business? How much of a cost savings have you seen? Incandescent Bulb Photo via Shutterstock ? MORE NEWS FROM SMALL BUSINESS TRENDSBarnes & Noble Nook Tablet for Small Business Owners“Tablet computers are for kids and gamers” is the prevailing sentiment that I hear from small business owners. The logic is that a tiny handheld computer won’t really help you get your work done. Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg dissed the iPad by stating it is not a mobile device. But despite a myriad of less-than-positive commentary, tablets are a big part of the near-term business future. Small Businesses Pay More For Health Care CoverageIn a 2009 study by the White House, small businesses pay 18% more in premiums for health coverage than their big box competitors per employee. As a small business owner are you surprised by this statistic? 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G8 Leaders Call for Growth: Six Things You Can DoLeaders the world over including those at this week’s G8 Summit are calling for economic growth, not just budget tightening, in an effort to combat world market instability and speed recovery. But for all the talk in policy circles, this growth will ultimately come from the private sector and especially here in the U.S., from small to medium sized businesses that create many of the jobs and employ many of the workers already in our economy. Here’s a look at the economic growth G8 leaders are calling for and six things you can do to promote growth in your business today. RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSWhen 'I'm Too Sexy' Lawsuit Settles, Will IRS Win Too?This is a great country, one of equal opportunity and more. Where else could you find the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) handling a complaint alleging religious and gender discrimination occurring in a lingerie warehouse?... Want to Hangout With the SBA Chief? Join UsAs part of National Small Business Week, we'll be moderating a live chat with SBA chief Karen Mills and winners of the SBA's video contest Wednesday in a Google+ hangout. ... Private Equity Investments: A Question Of Supply And DemandThe PE investment picture as 2012 began looked very much like the one that prevailed two years ago as the industry was clawing its way back from the depths of the downturn. But as we discuss in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2012, conditions today are more favorable for PE deal ... Will It Always Be Fun and Gamification?The future of gamification could include 'playbor' (play plus labor) and 'weisure' (work plus leisure). ... Why Failing Fast leads to SuccessOver that past few months, we’ve had some real strong momentum here at Lendio. It’s incredibly fun (& rewarding) to see “wins” on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. While we’ve had many spurts of positive momentum, the most recent string of successes is tied d... |
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