Lighting  »  Lamps

Lighting cost is more than the costs of the first investment and the electricity costs of the lighting system. All essential factors have to be taken into account (see figure above):

• Planning costs of the project
• The cost of luminaires, lamps, control system...
• Hours of use of the lighting system
• The lifetime of luminaries and lamps
• Lamp replacement costs and maintenance labour costs
• Capital costs
• Electricity costs and
• Future development of electricity costs

But of course, cost comparisons only make sense where the quality, service life, service ability and maintenance requirements of luminaires as well as the availability of spare parts and compliance with lighting quality features are comparable. Within the last years new and innovative techniques and computer aided planning help to plan optimised lighting systems. Technological progress has brought numerous improvements in modern lamps, luminaires and lighting techniques, e.g. increased luminous efficacy in fluorescent lamps and LED, reduced power dissipation in ballasts, improved light output ratios of luminaires, improved lighting control systems and more precise lighting planning methods. It is always recommend calculating the cost-benefit relation for the whole lighting system instead of calculating for the individual components of a lighting system, in new building or a retrofit project since the economic result can only be calculated for the whole measure.