Upgraded interior lights to LED
LEDs consume up to 90% less power than older incandescent bulbs and around 65% less power than equivalent fluorescent tubes
30 points for this action
Overview
Key advantages of switching to LED lighting
Efficiency and Cost reduction
LEDs are extremely energy efficient and consume up to 90% less power than older incandescent bulbs and around 65% less power than equivalent fluorescent tubes, resulting in a significant decrease in energy costs.
Heat Reduction
LEDs produce more less heat than older incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes. Inefficient lighting often produces heat in ceiling spaces where it doesn’t contribute much to winter heating, and may also increase classroom temperatures during the summer months.
Efficiency and Cost reduction
LEDs are extremely energy efficient and consume up to 90% less power than older incandescent bulbs and around 65% less power than equivalent fluorescent tubes, resulting in a significant decrease in energy costs.
Heat Reduction
LEDs produce more less heat than older incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes. Inefficient lighting often produces heat in ceiling spaces where it doesn’t contribute much to winter heating, and may also increase classroom temperatures during the summer months.
Low Carbon Emissions
LED lighting can reduce your carbon output by 65 to 90% and is environmentally friendly as they contain no mercury or polluting gases. They are also 95% recyclable.
Safety
All LEDs are free from harmful ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) emissions.
Quality and colour of Light
Schools should consider the ‘colour temperature’ of lighting when making a decision to install LED lighting. Unlike other types of lighting, LED lighting is available in a range of ‘colour temperatures’ from the blue end of the spectrum to the yellow end of the spectrum. Higher, blue colour temperatures will keep pupils awake but perhaps overly active, yellower lower colour temperatures may make them sleepy. Academic research suggests the perfect solution is yellow ‘lower temperature’ light at the start of lessons to calm pupils down after breaks, with the colour gradually turning bluer to retain their attention as lessons progress. Although this type of lighting which can be programmed to vary over time is available, it is expensive, so we recommend a compromise lighting of intermediate colour temperature, often labelled ‘daylight’ which is closest to the spectrum of lighting provided by the sun.
Life Cycle
LEDs expect a life cycle of 50,000 hours with minimal degradation. This equates to 5.7 years if left on continuously or over 17 years if switched on for 8 hours a day. The life cycle will therefore decrease maintenance costs significantly.
Durability
LEDs are solid state lighting devices that utilise semiconductor material instead of a filament or neon gas. An LED light is a tiny chip encapsulated in an epoxy resin enclosure which makes LEDs far sturdier than traditional incandescent light bulbs or fluorescent tubes. Since LEDs do no use fragile components such as glass and filaments, LEDs are able to withstand shock, vibration and extreme temperature.
Top tips
It is more cost effective to upgrade some types of lights than others:
- Upgrading a non-fluorescent to an LED will often pay back your costs in less than one year
- The circular (D type, compact) fluorescent lights are much less efficient than fluorescent tubes, you should replace them immediately as you will get your money back in under 18 months
- There are LED versions of most types of existing lights so your caretaker or building manager can just replace the bulbs without going to the expense of replacing the fittings
- Non-classroom spaces are often too brightly lit. A low cost approach would be to remove a few of the bulbs in these areas