Spend $40 now and SAVE $38 each year… 5 year Return On Investment = 370%

Office Exit Signs – Exit signs may be small, but they are illuminated 24 hours per day, seven days per week, so their energy use adds up. Exit signs formerly used incandescent lamps (usually two 20 or 40-watt lamps). Some of these older exit signs have been converted to use compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The CFLs last longer and use less energy.

The CFL powered exit signs with the same light output result in energy savings of 60 percent or more. Other efficient exit signs use light emitting diodes (LEDs), neon lighting, or electroluminescent lighting technology. The total energy use for these LED exit signs ranges from 1 to 10 watts. These technologies offer a maintenance benefit as well. LED, neon, and electroluminescent lighting technologies last much longer than incandescent lamps. Typical incandescent exit signs run on an average of two 30 watt bulbs (60 Watts Total), and they are on all day, every day. At 186 hours/week each one uses 11,160 watts per week. Ten exit signs use 111,600 watts or 11.6 Kilowatt Hours per week. A Kilowatt Hour is 1,000 watts of energy used over an hour. So 1 kWh is needed to power ten 100 Watt light bulbs for an hour.

To put it in perspective, running ten exit signs for a week is equivalent to powering 11 100 watt light bulbs for an hour, or powering over 33 Compact Fluorescent Lights. The kWh costs vary across US regional and power utility companies, but a kWh typically costs between $.10 and $.15 with $.12 as the US average cost. So, running ten exit signs costs $1.40 (1.8 kWh x $.12/KWh) per week. The monthly cost is $5.60, and over twelve months you spend about $67.20. Since CFLs save over 50% of the energy costs you can save over $33.70 per year for each set of ten bulbs. The cost of the Compact Fluorescent Lights is about $4 each, so you need to spend $40 to save over half of your exit sign power consumption. Remember the CFL bulbs also last 9 to 10 times also long as the incandescent, so you also save on replacement and labor. This savings can really add up for large offices, but for small offices every little saving not only impacts the bottom line, but it contributes toward a more sustainable work environment.

Just imagine the impact from the aggregate millions of small offices across the US that could reduce electricity demand and, in turn, reduce our need to burn coal to produce that electricity. This tactic is more about environmental stewardship than a significant impact on your bottom line.