LED lighting is a safer and energy-efficient alternative to traditional hospital lighting fixtures. Hospitals are similar to parking structures in that both lights burn 24 hours a day, so why not install the most energy-efficient lighting possible? Hospitals also won’t have to worry about their lighting breaking and mercury contamination because LED lighting does not contain mercury. The LED’s bright, white light is perfect for illuminating operating rooms and care units so doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals can see what they are doing.
Hawai’i Pacific Health has retrofitted the lighting in its four non-profit hospitals and 44 outpatient clinics and service sites around Hawai’i. HPC will save $10,000-$12,000 monthly from the LED lighting installed in one of its parking structures. Combined with the lighting retrofitted in hallways, waiting areas, cafeterias, and offices, the HPC will save $1.2 million and see a return on its investment in 15 months. The American Hospital Lighting Company, LLC, illustrates an example on their website of savings hospitals can take part in if they switch to LED lighting. A hospital with 500 two-lamp 40-watt four-foot fixtures and 500 four-lamp 40-watt fixtures uses 8,000,000 kilowatt-hours over five years. If the hospital replaced its lighting with T8 LEDs, it would only consume 2,000,000 kilowatt-hours over five years and reduce energy and maintenance costs by $628,847.
