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There's precious little we can do about prices at the gas pumps, but businesses can take steps, inside and out, that could reduce energy costs ­- especially electric bills. At least that's what Mike Kukovec and Rob Whitehead say.

It's easy to get started, too. Kukovec's first step: Turn off lights in spaces not in regular use - the copy room, for example, where motion sensors can turn lights on and off as needed. Lighting, he said, accounts for 40 percent of the typical business' energy bill.

Kukovec is manager of the electric department at Metro Design Associates Inc., an Elgin engineering and design firm. His passionate ideas about wiser, less costly energy use are worth noting - and often practical:

There's no need, he says, for the night cleaning crew to turn on all the lights when they arrive. Instead, lights can be turned on - and off - as the crew moves from area to area.

Chances are you can replace three- or four-lamp fluorescent fixtures with more efficient two-lamp ones.

Think about repositioning lighting so the work area is evenly lit - rather than having bright lights over a work space and dark walls, for example. Balanced lighting gives the impression of better lighting - and can help reduce costs.

Use daylight sensors that measure the amount of light available and adjust interior lighting output accordingly.

Solar panels can create lower cost energy, though, Kukovec notes, "maybe not enough to supply all of a business' needs." He's also into mechanical systems that, for example, run at night when electric rates are lower to make and store ice which then is melted during the day to help cool a facility.

There's a cost to this energy efficiency, of course. Kukovec's estimate is a "payback of under five years" for replacement of older fluorescent lights and fixtures. And, he adds, federal law includes some business HVAC and lighting tax breaks - though they appear to expire at year-end.

Lots of cost-saving opportunities exist outside, too.

Whitehead, president of Olympic Signs Inc. in Lombard - where, so you know, my company is a consultant, uses LED lights to lower electric bills. For example, he said, LED saves 44 percent over neon, "just in power consumption."

Lombard company helps ComEd save

OAKBROOK TERRACE -- The letters still glow bright red, but ComEd’s prominent sign atop its Oakbrook Terrace headquarters has gone green.

The electric utility recently completed replacing the sign’s old neon illumination with LED lights that consume nearly 90 percent less energy, last longer and require less maintenance. The sign, visible to drivers along I-88, previously used 2,618-watt neon lights, but now generates the same brightness using 323-watt light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

Because LEDs also last longer than neon lights and need to be replaced less frequently, ComEd expects to save another 20 percent in annual maintenance costs.

ComEd contracts for its signs and sign maintenance through Lombard-based Olympic Signs. read more