Basic Energy Efficiency Calculator

Enter location, inventory, and lighting settings to estimate potential energy savings.
Location
Inventory
Timer-controlled display faces
Photocell / dusk-to-dawn faces
Current timer schedule
:
When timer turns lights on
:
When timer turns lights off
Equipment & utility
Example: 400W total per billboard face.
$ /kWh default
Replace with actual rate for accurate estimate
Inventory & occupancy
%
Share of faces with a paying advertiser (80% = 4 of every 5 faces sold).
Estimated potential annual energy savingsUSD
📍 -
$0
Conservative range: $0 – $0
Sold energy excess
$0
Automatic · sold-board schedule trimmed to sunset
+
Unsold energy excess
$0
Requires switching dark faces off
Based on current inputs. Final savings should be confirmed using actual fixture wattage, utility bills, inventory counts, and observed timer/photocell settings.
Key drivers
Potential savings / yr
-
Estimated avoidable kWh/yr
-
CO₂ avoidable MT/yr
-
Sunset vs. timer schedule, 12-month view
Shows when the sun sets each month vs. your timer settings. The shaded zone above the dashed line represents excess illumination.
The energy savings above cover electricity only. Outdoorlink also cuts operating costs that this calculation does not include: fewer site visits, longer fixture life, and fewer advertiser credits for unlit faces.
Cost breakdown Yearly · USD
Timer excess cost
-
Lights on before sunset
Photocell excess cost
-
OFF time to sunrise
Unsold inventory excess
-
Unsold faces still lit

Key assumptions

Timer excess

Compares when lights turn on against the monthly sunset estimate. If the timer turns lights on before sunset, the difference is counted as excess illumination, plus, when the timer is still on after sunrise and goes off before noon, the hours from sunrise to Timer OFF. Calculated monthly using NOAA solar position algorithms for your location.

Hours outside the timer window are never counted, so the excess cannot exceed what the timer burns.

excess hours = (max(0, min(sunset, timer OFF) − timer ON) + max(0, timer OFF − max(sunrise, timer ON))) × days × faces

Photocell excess (off to sunrise)

Photocells keep faces lit from dusk all the way to sunrise. This measures the cost of the late-night window, from your preferred OFF time until sunrise, when a smarter schedule would already have switched the lights off. Applies to photocell-controlled faces only.

excess hours = (sunrise − OFF time) × days × faces

Energy cost

Converts excess illumination hours to kilowatt-hours and multiplies by the utility rate.

cost = excess hours × wattage ÷ 1,000 × $/kWh

Unsold inventory

An unsold face earns no revenue, so every hour it stays lit is waste. This counts the full nightly run time (timer window for timer faces, dusk-to-dawn for photocell faces) for the unsold share of your inventory. Tracked separately from the sold-face timing excess above, so there is no double-counting.

Final savings should be confirmed using actual fixture wattage, utility bills, inventory counts, and observed timer/photocell settings. It does not include maintenance costs, ballast/driver efficiency losses, LED vs. HID fixture differences, multi-rate utility structures, or weather-related impacts, and it assumes uniform wattage across all faces.

This is a rough estimate; speak with an Outdoorlink representative for a detailed model.