Your squash club has upgraded to LED. How do you check whether the savings match the proposal? Start with the lighting circuit and its operating hours, rather than comparing two whole-building bills. Heating, showers and opening hours can change independently of court lighting.
Record a useful baseline before replacement
Keep the old fixture count, lamp and control-gear details, switching schedule and available meter readings. Ask your electrician whether a lighting submeter or temporary measurement is appropriate. Do not open electrical panels yourself. Nameplate wattage provides an estimate; a measured circuit load can capture equipment losses that a lamp label misses.
Compare the same amount of lighting service
Record lighting hours, not only booked court hours. Include cleaning, coaching and time left on between sessions. If the club becomes busier after the upgrade, total consumption may fall less than expected even though each lit hour uses less electricity.
- Record lighting electricity in kWh for a defined period.
- Record the hours each court was illuminated and its dimming setting.
- Note closed courts, changed opening hours and any shared circuits.
- Check that the new lighting still delivers the agreed playing conditions.
A simple comparison
Illustrative example: an old installation draws 1.8 kW and the replacement draws 0.6 kW at the compared setting. Over 1,000 equivalent operating hours, the estimated reduction is (1.8 − 0.6) × 1,000 = 1,200 kWh. At an illustrative variable electricity price of €0.25/kWh, that is €300. These are example inputs, not an AXION performance promise. Standing charges and maintenance savings are separate.
Keep price changes out of the energy comparison
Report kWh saved first, then apply a clearly stated tariff. A falling electricity price can make an unchanged installation look cheaper; a rising price can hide a successful upgrade. Keep the original forecast and the measured result in separate columns, with an explanation of any differences.
The US Department of Energy's measurement and verification guidance highlights operating hours and baseline conditions as factors in planning measurement. For a club, a consistent record is more useful than an unexplained headline percentage.
Turn the findings into the next decision
Use our LED savings calculator for a forecast, and your own readings to check it afterwards. If you are comparing several courts, send Global LED Lights your fixture counts, operating hours and available measurements. We can help define the information needed for a lighting proposal.