Let There Be (Efficient) Light: Rethinking Lab Lighting

In a previous Greening the Bench post, Night-Time Savings: How Safe HVAC Setbacks Pay Off, we looked at how your building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning can work smarter overnight without compromising safety. This time we are staying with energy, but focusing on lighting.

Lighting is one of the most essential things in our workspaces and it might seem difficult to see where savings can be made. In a typical lab, lighting can account for a meaningful slice of electricity use but nearly every improvement you can make, pays back in both carbon and financial savings.

But who controls the lights?

As with HVAC setbacks, most of the changes in this blog are not things lab members can do by themselves. Light fittings, wiring and any automated switching usually sit with your facilities team.

However, that doesn't mean there isn't responsibility for us in the lab. As the people who actually use the space, lab users are best placed to notice what is wasteful and a clear request to facilities is often all it takes to get something moving. Most facilities teams are already running net-zero programmes for the estate, so will be keen to have energy saving opportunities like this highlighted to them.

Why lab lighting deserves a second look

Labs tend to be lit brightly and for long hours and plenty of benches stay lit long after the last person has gone home. Older fluorescent tubes make this worse as they are relatively inefficient, contain mercury, flicker as they age and need replacing regularly, which adds both cost and waste.

None of this is anyone's fault. Lighting is designed to be invisible and we only notice it when it fails. But that invisibility is exactly why a deliberate second look is useful. A handful of considered changes can cut your lighting energy substantially, while making the space more pleasant to work in.

Starting with the bulbs: LED retrofits

The single biggest win is usually the simplest: swapping ageing fluorescent tubes and halogen fittings for LEDs. Modern LED tubes use roughly 50 to 70% less energy for the same light. Many are designed as direct retrofits into existing fittings, so a rewire is often not needed. This is a facilities job but it is an easy, high impact upgrade to put on their radar.

The savings do not stop with just the energy, as LEDs last several times longer than fluorescent tubes, so far fewer are bought and disposed of, and they contain no mercury. Providing lower bills, less maintenance, less waste, and better quality light to work under, it is an easy case to make to those in charge of the budget.

Switching off: Culture and Automation

In many buildings the modern solution to avoid lights staying on when they're not needed is to have PIR motion sensors, but in labs they are usually not allowed. That's because if a light is switched off when a sensor (wrongly) decides the room is empty while someone is halfway through an experiment, this becomes a real health and safety problem. So most labs quite rightly keep motion sensors out of working areas.

There are two other routes to savings. The first is a strong shutdown culture with a simple, shared habit of the last person out, switching the lights off. We looked at how to build exactly that in Switch Off Together: Building a Shutdown Culture in the Lab.

The second and debatably better route is to ask your facilities team whether your Building Management System (BMS) can switch lighting off automatically after a set time once the lab is usually empty. As a BMS schedule is a timed cut rather than a motion trigger, rarely will anybody be plunged into darkness and the lights are not left on overnight or all weekend. It is the same safety led, automated thinking behind HVAC setbacks, applied to something far simpler.

Action of the Week

• Take five minutes to do a walk round of your lab, noting every room that has individually controlled lighting and any ageing fluorescent tubes.

• Ask your facilities team if lighting can be set to switch off automatically via the BMS once the lab is empty.

• If not, get building that shutdown routine!

Conclusion: Small Switches, Big Savings

Lighting is one of those great sustainability wins, where doing the right thing environmentally and doing the sensible thing financially both point in exactly the same direction. Every fitting upgraded and every fixture turned off is a little less carbon and a little less cost, month after month.

It is likely that you will not be able change the process in the whole building by yourself, and you are not meant to. Your part is to notice what is wasteful and to make the case to the people who can change it. Start with one room, one conversation, one upgrade, and let the savings build from there. Remember, every small action counts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much energy can LED lighting save in a lab?

LED tubes use roughly 50 to 70% less energy than fluorescent tubes for the same light output, and they last several times longer, so they cut both electricity use and replacement costs. Many are direct retrofits into existing fittings, though the swap itself is usually a job for your facilities team.

Are motion sensors suitable for lab lighting?

Usually not in working lab areas. If a sensor switches the lights off while someone is halfway through an experiment, it's a real health and safety risk, so most labs keep motion sensors out of active spaces. A scheduled shutdown or a timed BMS switch-off once the lab is empty is a safer way to achieve the same saving.

How can a lab switch lights off automatically without motion sensors?

Ask your facilities team whether the Building Management System (BMS) can switch lighting off on a schedule once the lab is usually empty, rather than on a motion trigger. Paired with a strong shutdown culture, where the last person out turns the lights off, this cuts wasted lighting energy without ever risking darkness mid-experiment.

Whose responsibility are lab lighting changes?

Most lighting upgrades, from LED retrofits to automated switching, sit with facilities rather than the people running experiments. As a lab user, your role is to spot what is wasteful and make a clear request. A short walk around noting empty lit rooms is often all the evidence needed to get a change moving.