At the factory where his business has been based for more than a decade, Stephen Graham turns on the lights.

“This is key to our business when inspecting clear acrylic for marks,” said the chief executive of acrylic and plastic product manufacturer Display Developments in Erith, which had LED lighting installed by Dartford-based 8point3 in 2012.

“As far as the working environment is concerned, the staff noticed a change in the type of light they were working under initially but soon became used to it and I believe the quality of light in the building is now far superior to the traditional system it replaced.”

Based at the Bridge business park in Dartford, 8point3 was set up by former MOD engineer Ashley Bateup in 2012.

Last year, the company received a £200,000 interest-free loan from the Tiger regional growth fund to develop a new type of LED lighting and expand their staff from three to 12.

The product they have come up with, Sabre, saves customers up to 80% on their energy bills with glare-free lights that last for up to 100,000 hours and look the same as what can be seen using a fluorescent bulb.

“I recognised there was a huge pressure on businesses to reduce their fixed costs,” said managing director Mr Bateup.

“Sustainability and carbon footprints are on everyone’s agenda. With my engineering background I knew we could create some high-quality LED solutions.”

As well as swapping conventional bulbs for energy saving LED ones, Mr Bateup has ambitions to change the way companies use light.

The company is developing technology which measures when lights are on and how much power is being used. It could give companies the ability to just pay for the light they use.

“If you can see when lights are on and off remotely, you can understand how a building is being used and monitor people flow around a site. We can deliver a company whatever amount of light is required, but they don’t own any technical products. That way we can give a company guaranteed savings.

“We can say to a company their light will cost £70,000 a year and we carry the risk for maintenance and pay for the equipment out of the amount we charge them each year.”

With oil and gas prices falling, companies should be getting a much better deal on their energy but not all the Big Six firms have pledged to lower prices in response to cheaper raw materials.

Ofgem is investigating the practices of these companies, which have upped their prices by 37% in three years.

Many companies have responded by taking out fixed-term deals on their energy but this can cause a nasty jump in fixed costs when an energy contract comes to an end.

James Dubois, sales director at Lumina Energy, which seeks out cheaper energy prices for more than 1,000 business customers, said: “Although the Big Six energy suppliers have recently announced cuts to domestic gas bills, we have been offering lower energy prices to businesses for some time now because we also deal with a number of smaller, independent suppliers and they have already reduced their prices.”

The Kings Hill-based broker is part of Commercial Services, a supplier of education kit, energy and recruitment services owned by Kent County Council, which receives all its profits.

Mr Dubois claims Lumina saves customers about £1,044 a year off their gas and electricity bills, with the large savings reachable because they are owned by the public sector.

He said: “The need to make the profits other brokers make isn’t as strong so we can be more competitive and potentially offer a better price.”

Even with the Bank of England concerned about deflation, Mr Dubois said businesses exiting long-term energy contracts should expect a rise in prices.

“There was a time when energy prices were coming down, but for the last six years they have certainly got worse,” he said.

“Companies are feeling the full impact of those increases. No one is coming out of their contract expecting to find a cheaper rate.

“Our service is sometimes about saving money on what people are paying but it is more about minimising the increase.”