When using LEDs maintenance costs are vastly reduced. In fact one could argue that LED maintenance is zero. This is mainly due to the following factors:

1) Leds are highly rugged. They are an electronic device that features no filament that can be damaged due to shock and vibrations.

2) Leds do  not require special electronic starters. How many times have we changed tubes only to find it is the starter that has failed?

3) Leds have a junction temperature up to 150ºC. Therefore they can work quite happily within ambient temperatures of -40 to +60ºC without any degradation of life.

4) The biggest factor in keeping maintenance costs down is the overall life of the LED. Leds can last up to 100,000 hours, 24/7. That’s on every minute of the day for 10 years. Now consider turning the Led off for 50% of this time. Ie. During daylight hours. This will double the Led life. WOW now 20 years.

5) Leds because they are an electronic chip can be turned on and off as many times and as fast as you like without effecting their life.

The above make Led solutions very cost effective. Especially if you require special equipment or specially trained staff to change a particular light bulb.

We know of occasions where the cost to change a light bulb has been over £30000.00. by the time scaffolding has been erected.

Imagine the cost if a swimming pool has to be emptied OR a road has to be closed for a crane to be brought in.

A carbon footprint is defined as:

The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

In other words: When you drive a car, the engine burns fuel which creates a certain amount of CO2, depending on its fuel consumption and the driving distance. (CO2 is the chemical symbol for carbon dioxide). When you heat your house with oil, gas or coal, then you also generate CO2. Even if you heat your house with electricity, the generation of the electrical power may also have emitted a certain amount of CO2. When you buy food and goods, the production of the food and goods also emitted some quantities of CO2.

Your carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide), which were induced by your activities in a given time frame. Usually a carbon footprint is calculated for the time period of a year.

If something uses less power it is assumed to have a small carbon footprint. ie. If you owned a Mini and your neighbour owned a Porsche you would assume that the Mini had a smaller carbon footprint.

However although the above may be true you do need to consider other factors for your carbon footprint. You need to take into account how much energy will be used to make the Mini, along with how much energy will be used to dispose of it.

A recent survey carried out that form birth to grave the car with the lowest carbon footprint was a gas guzzling 4x4 basic jeep. This was because it did not cost much to produce and most of it was recyclable. In fact it had a smaller carbon footprint than the newest petrol/electric hybrid cars. Although the hybrid cars have a low carbon footprint while being used. They are expensive to build and a nightmare to dispose of due to the batteries used.

Leds however are not like hybrid cars. They do not use a lot of power to make and can be disposed of easily. In fact LEDs contain no mercury or poisonous gases and are recyclable.

Most of the power leds are around the 1W mark and produce approximately 100 Lumens. In practice this means that a 40/50W bulb can be replaced with a 10 1W Leds.

You may think that this is similar to a fluorescent tube. However a fluorescent tube still needs equipment to turn the light on. When we measured an 18W fluorescent tube we were surprised to find it took another 14W of power to turn it on.