Here at Kolb Electric, we’ve had numerous business owners throughout MD, DC, and VA approach us for more information about commercial light-emitting diodes—more commonly referred to as LEDs. Businesses everywhere have been forced to find ways to reduce their monthly expenses and save money in order to survive in these challenging economic times. Transitioning to commercial LED lighting is one of the ways businesses in the area can save money and enjoy other benefits as well.

Commercial LED lighting is very energy-efficient—replacing incandescent, halogen, or compact fluorescent light bulbs with LED lighting reduces energy consumption 50 – 85 percent. Some studies reveal that businesses have the potential to save as much as 60 percent on their electricity bill each month by making a total change from incandescent bulbs to LED lighting. ENERGY STAR reports that lighting is the largest cost component of a commercial building’s electricity bill and a significant portion of the total energy bill.

Some businesses shy away from LED bulbs because of their higher initial cost compared to other bulbs.  However, it will not take long for businesses to recoup this cost in the form of direct savings on electricity bills. Also, LED bulbs work by generating light using a semiconductor rather than relying on heating up a traditional filament. What does this mean for you? It means the highest quality LED bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours. The typical incandescent bulb, on the other hand, lasts only about 750 hours.

Work environment upgrades are closely tied with an improvement in the performance of employees. A Cornell University study estimates that a 3 – 5 percent gain in worker performance can be achieved with better lighting. In many cases, the gains in worker productivity alone are enough to offset the costs associated with commercial LED lighting. Light has a direct correlation with ease of reading, lower eyestrain, reduced errors, better turnaround time, reduced risk of musculoskeletal injuries, and psychological well-being.

The great thing about commercial LED lighting is that it can be tailored to meet your needs for color accuracy. Whether you want lighting that’s warm, cool, or neutral, the right type of LED lighting is available. Color rendering—the ability to make colors look true—must also be taken into account when it comes to LED lighting. The color rendering index (CRI) characterizes light sources in view of their ability to produce “natural light” and can be between 0 and 100. The closer an LED light comes to 100 on the CRI, the more naturally colors are rendered, and the light is perceived as more pleasant.

Transitioning to commercial LED lighting can help you save immediately on your electricity bills. The fact that LED lighting lasts significantly longer than incandescent bulbs and has the potential to improve employee performance is also beneficial to your business. If you want to learn about what type of commercial LED lighting is best for your business, contact us today.

The cost of many of the more traditional energy sources that we use, such as natural gas, gasoline and electricity are right there in front of us. Determining the overall cost of solar power, on the other hand, is not quite as simple. To make this process even more difficult, many of us have a hard time seeing not only the cost of solar panels, but the overall value. Unlike gasoline and other easily measured energy sources, solar panels provide their value over several years, rather than a few trips in the car.

How Much Do Solar Panels Cost?

In most cases, photovoltaic panels are priced by dollars per watt. Although many places will label things differently, this is the basis for most calculations. Whenever you purchase a solar panel system, you are essentially paying for the ability, or capacity to generate a certain amount of electricity, rather than a certain amount of energy to use until it is gone.

The overall cost of your solar panels will vary, depending on your individual project. Because each home is different, each project is different, making general quotes difficult. Furthermore, special tax programs that provide rebates and incentives can play a huge role in the cost of your panels. For an accurate cost, get in touch with solar installers in your area.

In addition to the varying costs of solar installation, are the various methods of purchase. The traditional form of buying panels outright and having them installed is less popular than it used to be. Many homeowners are now taking advantage of special financing for their solar panels. There are also many solar leasing programs out there, that we discuss at Solar panel Info. These programs allow you to lease a set of solar panels, and keep all of the energy that you generate. With all of these different options, generating solar power is much easier than ever before.

Read more about solar panels.

Many backup power systems rely simply on a single source of energy for emergency power.  Whether it’s a backup power generator, a backup battery system, or solar backup power, the system is usually flawed because all of your emergency power is resting on a single source.  If we’ve learned anything from Murphy’s Law, it is that a single backup plan has the potential to easily fail in your time of need.

In order to have a truly reliable backup power system, it must have several options for recharging in the event that one or more of your power sources fail.  Here are some of the recharging options available to easily integrate into your Indoor GeneratorTM backup power system:

Clearly, having recharging options at your disposal for backup power systems will be essential to their success.  Among these options, solar backup power is perhaps the most reliable, convenient, and clean.  However, the other options are certainly viable as well to ensure your backup power system is able to maintain power indefinitely.

If you have yet to install a backup solar panel to recharge the backup power system in your home or business, contact a reputable Dallas electrician to take care of the job correctly.