Ever had one of those “lightbulb moments” for a solution? The lightbulb itself is one too.
Yes, you could switch to those funky looking — and admittedly more expensive — bulbs for greater energy efficiency. But there’s another way you can get some greater savings from lighting: planned maintenance.
A light burns out and you change it, right? Not so fast — that ultimately isn’t the most cost effective route to take.
Facility management experts instead encourage “group relamping.” That means on a regular schedule changing all the lamps or bulbs in your office.
The keys:
- You do it after hours, so there’s no productivity loss or disruptions.
- You do it at the right time — when lights are at 60%-70% of their rated light.
- You only trust the job to people who know what they’re doing, so nobody’s pulling lights that still have a lot of life left in them.
To get even more from this strategy, you might suggest that your facilities team also clean light fixtures on this schedule. That can improve the quality of light you get all the time.
There’s a perk on the procurement side by going this route, too: Because you’ll be replacing lighting in one fell swoop, you can buy your replacement bulbs in bulk for a volume discount!