A fourth of all electricity sold in the United States is used for lighting. Most of this lighting is used in stores, offices, warehouses, and factories. It is strange, then, that conserving energy with lighting projects is not a high priority for most businesses. They wrongly assume lighting is a fixed overhead item that cannot be substantially reduced as an expense.
One of the prejudices businesses sometimes have concerning lighting is to concentrate on the initial cost: They buy the cheapest lamps. They don’t consider the life-cycle cost of these lamps. This can be a big mistake, given the 20,000-hour lifetime of a typical lamp. That is, the installation of more efficient lamps can pay for their modest additional cost many times over when the cost is priced over the expected lifetime of the lamps. There are many ways to minimize the lighting costs at a facility; few of them require a substantial investment. These projects will not be separated into major and minor undertakings as with the other areas. Instead, the best approach with lighting is to look at the long term, beginning with a commitment to purchasing only the most efficient replacement lamps and installing the most efficient fixtures in remodeled areas and new construction.
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Excerpt from Energy Conservation Projects.