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Communal Lighting |
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Better for the landlord to be £7 a year better off than the power company.
Typical CFL Bulb Savings – typical amounts saved on electricity bill by changing to CFL bulbs.
Bulb Replacement Costs
Judge Electrical charge £50 for the first hour and £26 for every subsequent hour.
If you don’t get an electrician to replace the bulbs how do you value your time?
Replacing bulbs can be expensive.
Buying ‘long-life’ bulbs is money well-spent.
Typical Lighting Maintenance Cost Savings
Checking Communal Lighting Bulbs
Tenants will only report broken communal lighting problems when it has a big impact, that is during the winter. Not many tenants will report communal lighting problems during the summer.
It is worth checking the communal lighting towards the end of summer at a time to suit you.
Finding problems with communal lighting early gives you some flexibility about repairing the lights or replacing bulbs.
Lights flickering – possible causes.
One Light Brighter Or Dimmer Than The Others – possible causes.
One Bulb Blows More Often Than Others – possible causes.
Control Of Lighting
There are many different types of lighting:
· Movement activated – come on when someone is using the communal area.
· ‘Dusk to dawn’ – only come on when it is dark.
· Combination of movement activated and dusk to dawn – come on when someone is using the communal area between dusk and dawn.
· Pressure sensor – come on when someone stands on a pressure pad, for instance a mat at an entrance.
New types of control become available regularly, do some research.
Lighting Maintenance
Some UK councils see communal lighting as essential; the good landlord should consider communal lighting essential.
Regularly inspect the lighting and switches. The next time you have an electrician at the property have the electrician check the lighting.
Lighting does not need much maintenance; lighting maintenance can be relatively cheap, plan lighting maintenance.
Better to find a problem when it is convenient to the landlord rather than at, say, a weekend.
Links
Small Business Lighting ‘Home Page’
Electrical Test And Inspection
Small Business Guideline Prices
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This webpage provides advice on communal lighting for landlords.
Running Costs
A CFL bulb will save about £7 a year in running costs when compared to a 60W bulb. £7 is not much money but is money that does not need to be spent. |
