Reading trade press, we’re struck by how little hard data is available on the financial impact of deploying LED solutions in place of fluorescent tubes. This is something we need to put right - by answering the questions that our customers are regularly putting to us.
Energy and maintenance costs are reduced, but by how much?
Is there significant ROI?
What’s the breakeven point on the investment?
Is this an important financial decision or one to ignore?
We’ve put together a case study to help. But first a caveat; all the data comes from our friends in the outdoor industry, from the leading multinational contractors and from our Bright Green experience around the world - so this is much more than a back of an envelope calculation but much less than a fully researched study and exact figures will vary with circumstances.
Here’s the scenario: a 6-sheet ’shelter size’ box, single-sided, 6 x 58W tubes, 24/7 operation, power at £0.12 per kWhr ($0.25). We’ve assumed an annual ‘planned’ retube and 1 ‘unplanned’ visit in 5 years to replace a tube or failed ballast. Sound familiar?
Replacing the tubes in a 1000 boxes with a Bright Green system has a dramatic financial impact:
- More than £1.8 m in operational savings in the first 5 years
- At least 70% energy saving (with a further £25,000 ($50,000) saved per 10% increase in energy cost)
- Maintenance costs are eliminated
These savings add up quickly, in fact in this example the payback time for the higher inital costs is just 12 months.
It’s important to note that these impressive operational savings take no account of the revenue benefits of installing an LED system and therefore understate the full financial impact. These benefits are threefold.
First, the sales upside from providing advertisers with higher quality displays, second, reduced rpitvchinebates from failed tubes and third, the green premium that comes from pitching a sustainable solution to clients, local authorities and site owners. If each of these factors increased revenues by just 1% each over the lifetime of the system (less than our industry colleagues suggest), then the total financial impact of the decision increases to more than £3m and the breakeven period shrinks to just 7 months.
Do let us know your thoughts on this example - we’d be delighted to run your figures through our economic model and calculate savings for your illuminated displays.
It’s time to save money - dump the tubes!
