We are considering putting LED lights in out new office. The electrician says we can save $5k per year on our power bill but the LED light fixtures cost $30k more. Has anyone retrofitted with LED lights and seen a dramatic drop in power consumption?

Only in a salt water aquarium where very strong lighting is required. LEDs are more intense and use significantly less power. Now how that would translate in an office environment, I don't know but would suspect the electrician is right. Plus the lifespan of the LEDs is at least 5-10 times longer than fluorescents. It would be a long term savings.

LEDs....

According to my boss. They put led in the store and it cut the bill in half. But that was going from the old lights like they have in gyms

I know from my limited new usage of LED's that the heat given off is a heck of a lot less. I think the summer air conditioning cost will be a big plus with the LED's and the light is a lot better.

yes go with the led, a little more to buy but low maintenance and less energy used.

LEDs all the way. Never have to worry about blown bulbs and changing ballast again.

LED's all the way.

I changed my shop over 2 years ago. Cheaper power bill and much more light. Initial cost was sporty, but I am getting it back every month.

Watts/volts= amps. Do the math.

You can power 10,10 watt leds for 1 100 watt incandescent bulb, based on the amount of lumens per bulb you will get a substantial increase in lighting, also factor in the temperature "color" you want your rooms. My self personnally like the 5-6k kelvin range.

LED all the way

The LEDs will have a wattage rating on them. A lot of the 4' fluorescent bulbs are 40 watts per bulb so a 4 bulb fixture would use 160 watts vs a LED fixture with 4 15w lamps would use 60 watts almost 1/3 the consumption of fluorescents. For the record you do NOT have to use a special fixture for the led retrofits. They need no ballast just line and neutral.

A couple of years ago, a major paper mill in the state changed almost 2000 light fixtures to LED. Their estimated energy consumption was reduced by over 3 Million kWh annually, and reduced energy cost by approximately $105,000/yr. So yea, I think it'd be a good choice for your new office.

There is no doubt that it will drastically reduce the energy usage. Is it worth it? It all depends on how many fixtures you have. If it will pay for itself within 3.5 to 4.5 years it is a good investment. I am an electrical contractor and do these energy audits fairly regularly. We quoted an aerospace hanger recently and the payback was a little over a year (of course all of the lighting was 1,000 watt highbays and there were a ton of them). I can do the calculations for payback/ROI if you need me to. It is fairly simple but I will need some detailed information on the fixtures used and the ones currently installed. The Payback for your situation, if the electrician was correct, is 6 years. That, using the Payback/ROI goal I stated earlier, is not a good investment but, if I had the money, I would still convert to LED. The lack of maintenance alone is worth it to me.

We just did the largest LED retrofit ever in Mobile. We have been off of the job for nearly a year and we have had only 3 of the LED modules go bad. There were over 4,000 fixtures on this project so that it a pretty good ratio. They are becoming more reliable every year and the pricing has come down significantly. I love me some LED.

The way to go, if it is a large existing facility, is to get a team together (HVAC, Controls, & Electrical Contractors) and have them do an energy audit and put together a proposal.

We had mostly halogen lights on our showroom. Converted to LED and monthly power bill went from $2500 down to about $700. We have to use the heat now, when we had just halogen lights running, it could be highs in the 30's for few days and we would still have to run the AC.

It was amazing. A better quality light, lower cost to operate, and less time wasted replacing bulbs.

Yes, it's worth the investment. LED's save $ in several ways which have already been mentioned. Cuts down on heat, less power consumption, and a big plus is lack of maintenance.

You didn't give many details on what kind of office or fixtures, but I'm curious about what you've been told. Did the person telling you that you will save $5k a year actually do an energy audit on your office based on $ per KW hour? It's very possible to save $5k a year but to know for sure an energy audit needs to be done first.

Also, the price of $30k more for LED over fluorescent seems high to me. It could be depending on the fixture but it not normal.

Most manufacturers are trying to get away from fluorescent all together and strictly produce LED. I've quoted 2 jobs in the past couple months where I had to price LED fixtures and fluorescent. One job was more expensive to use fluorescent, the other was the same price. So many people manufacturing LED's now has driven the price down significantly.

Shoot me a PM if you want me to give you some prices to give you an idea. Need to know quantity, existing fixtures, ceiling height.

I live 6 months of the year on a brand new $750,000,000 drillship. First thing they started doing when it went into service was begin replacing all the lights, inside and out, with LED fixtures.

LEDs no doubt

Love all my leds. Heck with a Fluro light.

I'm almost finished building our house and it will be all LED, mostly cans but the vanities and dining room have led replacement bulbs. The cans with led trim were less than $13 each so I put in a bunch. I also put a couple of led shoplights in the workshop, they work great. Ain't no telling of the savings yet but hopefully the power company will owe me, err sumthin.