About LED Savings Calculator

LED Savings is a free Australian LED lighting calculator built by Cutter Electronics. It exists because the tools available to commercial and industrial buyers were either too simple to be useful, or built for markets with different electricity prices and rebate schemes.

Who built it

Cutter Electronics has been designing and developing LED and solid-state lighting products for over 20 years. That depth of experience in how LED products are actually engineered — drivers, thermal management, efficacy degradation, chip quality — is the knowledge base behind this tool.

We built ledsavings.com.au as a free resource because we kept seeing commercial clients receive LED quotes based on watt-for-watt substitution tables and US electricity tariffs. Both produce numbers that are wrong for Australian conditions. The tool was designed to fix that.

Why lumen-based calculation matters

Most online LED calculators use simple watt substitution tables. A table says "replace your 400W metal halide with a 150W LED" and the calculator accepts that as given. The problem is that those substitution figures assume an LED efficacy of around 233 lm/W — a performance level that no commercial fitting on the Australian market actually achieves.

This calculator works differently. You enter the lumen output of your existing lamp, select an LED efficacy tier that reflects the product quality you are specifying, and the calculator derives the LED wattage from the formula: LED watts = lumens / lm/W. This produces an accurate like-for-like replacement regardless of what you are replacing.

The difference matters. A 150W LED at a realistic 140 lm/W produces 21,000 lumens — 60% of what a 400W metal halide delivers. A warehouse running at 60% of its designed lux level is a safety issue, not an upgrade.

Australian electricity tariffs

The calculator uses commercial electricity tariff averages published by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) and the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) for each state and territory. These are updated periodically to reflect current network pricing. You can also override the default rate with your actual contracted tariff if you have it.

Government rebate estimates

The calculator includes rebate estimates for the three main Australian state energy schemes: the NSW Energy Savings Scheme (ESS), Victoria's Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program, and South Australia's Retailer Energy Productivity Scheme (REPS). Rebate figures are indicative only and should be verified with the relevant scheme administrator or an accredited installer before making investment decisions.

White-label PDF reports

Electrical contractors, lighting consultants and solar installers can create a free account, upload their company logo, and generate branded PDF reports for their clients. Every report carries the contractor's name, contact details and branding — not ours. The tool is designed to be invisible infrastructure for the trade.

Contact us

Questions about the calculator or feedback on the tool: contact us here or email cutterelectronics@gmail.com.