Solar panels, heat pumps and LED light bulbs - there's a wide range of energy saving products out there, and finding the right one is important for both homeowners and businesses.

Yet while global giants like Google can afford to fill countless acres with solar farms so vast that they make the London Olympic Park look like a primary school playground, there are very few businesses capable of investing in such a move, so adopting more accessible products to boost energy efficiency is usually a far better option.

And with Industry Today reporting that the Californian capital - Sacramento - is now mandating LEDs for use in street lights and signs, the benefits of using such technology in a wide range of areas can easily be seen.

Of course, street lamps on the west coast of the US may be of little concern to us, but the practicality of the measure emphasises the multiple uses of LED bulbs.

Where standard lights used to illuminate the roads waste 80 per cent of the energy they produce emitting heat and only 20 per cent doing their job, LEDs reverse this as 80 per cent of the power they consume is converted into light.

The standard lifetime of an LED bulb is said to be 100,000 hours - making ordinary light bulbs almost laughable in comparison as they last for around 5,000 hours and consume far more energy.

So with better energy efficiency, higher light intensity and a reduced need to keep going up the ladder and changing them around, LEDs could be the answer to cutting expenditure on both bills and bulbs.

With businesses and homeowners able to benefit from the vast range of advantages of LED technology, many may look to invest in the near future as energy prices look set to increase in the coming months.