According to Nevada Power, simply keeping the lights on can make up 40 percent of a business's monthly power bill.

Reducing the cost of lighting your business could be a financial boon, especially if you're a savvy shopper.

Spotted at the 99 Cents Only store on Marks Street in Henderson last week was one businessman who knows how to pinch the pennies.

Acting on a tip from a neighbor, the man (who wanted to remain anonymous) purchased dozens of compact florescent light bulbs for his store.

At 99 cents per bulb, he paid about three to four times less than he would have elsewhere.

It's part of a residential home lighting program sponsored by Nevada Power and parent company Sierra Pacific Resources that anyone ‘ including business owners ‘ can easily get on board with. The power conglomerate wants to get 1.7 million light bulbs in Nevada replaced with the CFL lights by year's end.

And it's only the beginning. Nevada Power has several conservation programs to help businesses drop their operational costs and conserve energy at the same time.

"The main reason for customers to do this is in these times of rising energy costs, conservation makes sense on several levels," said Nevada Power Director of Energy Efficiency and Customer Strategy Greg Kern. "Part of each bill is based on how many kilowatt hours you use and how much those cost to produce. We don't have any control over the cost of production, but we do have control over how many kilowatt hours we use. We can install energy efficient lights, we can turn off lights behind us, we can set the thermostat higher. There are many things we can do from a savings standpoint."

The Surebet Commercial Incentive program offers rebates and advice to business owners who want to reduce the cost of heating, cooling and lighting their stores.

Unlike the savvy Henderson shopper, most businesses use old-fashioned, long, tubular florescent lights that are difficult to replace with modern, energy efficient lights.

Nevada Power is offering help in the form of rebates to businesses that upgrade.

Applications for the program are available on their Web site, www.nevadapower.com.

In previous years, rebate programs often ran out of money long before now, but due to expansion in 2007, there are still funds available to participating businesses.

Nevada Power is also offering advice and energy efficiency evaluations for new commercial construction. The company will check out all vital systems from insulation to lighting to climate control to make sure businesses will get the most bang for their buck in their new buildings.

And if you own a small hotel or motel (fewer than 200 rooms), you can get even more help.

The new Surebet Small Hotel/Motel program gives hotel managers more control over the temperature in empty rooms.

Under the program, the power company will install devices that hand over climate control to the front desk whenever guests exit their room. The device includes a key card holder that transfers control of the heating and cooling to the room occupant. When the key is removed, the temperature is restored to pre-programmed levels.

"Because they can control the temperature of the empty room it saves the hotel manager a significant amount of money," Kern said. "But as soon as someone gets in there, the customer regains control of everything on the temperature control and can set it to their comfort level."

Nevada Power has also relaunched the popular Residential Air Conditioning Load Management Program to include small businesses.

Now called the Cool Share program, it allows small commercial properties to help take the pressure off the grid on high energy-use days.

Participants receive programmable thermostats that allow them to change the temperature setting remotely over the Internet. A few times a year, when energy usage is high, the power company will take control of the system remotely and adjust the thermostat a few degrees to save energy. The business then gets a rebate from the power company to compensate for the possible inconvenience.

The power company also has conservation programs for larger companies. Building managers and custodians are encouraged to take part in a yearlong course on energy conservation tactics.

"They meet once a month for a year to learn about heating, lighting, cooling and insulation so whoever is controlling your building can be better and more efficient at doing it," Kern said.