How can I persuade my school to change light bulbs from incandescent to a more efficient type like LEDs?

Answer 1

You could start by realizing how much it would cost. LEDs are very efficient, and have very long life spans (typically 100,000 hours +), but cost a lot to initially install. Our cities highschools (two schools with around 3,000 students each) just got a very large bond passed (somewhere around 10 mil) and they upgraded everything in one, and rebuilt the second. 70" plasmas in each room, and a state of the art library that ranks in the top 25 in the US. None of the lights are LED. they are however the less costly alternative; flurocents. Most if not all commercially used building (including schools) already have these systems in place. Depending on the age of the school, they may have aging systems that need to be updated, which is fairly inexpensive, opposed to installing banks of LEDs (rows of LEDs - necessary to provide even light, as they don't distribute light i

n wide angles.) which would cost a fortune (a simple basic LED bulb from radio shack: 50-75¢ last I saw. Now multiply that by say 200 for each bank of LEDs. How many banks would u need? Count the existing amout of light fixtures in the school, and that's about how many you need.). Our school has around 4,000 fixtures (3 floors; 30 rooms each floor, 10 fixtures per room. Science wing; 50 rooms (induing labs), 10 fixtures each. Hallways: 75 per floor. Gym; 100 large fixtures (equals 4 banks of LEDs each fixture) Basketball court; 75 large fixtures (same size as gym's). Cafeteria; 50 fixtures. Main entrance; 75 fixtures. Music wing; (20 large rooms) 25 fixtures per room. Auditorium; 200 fixtures. -- just to give you an idea on how many lights for each kind of rooms and such.) so 4,000 x 200 = 800,000. 800,000 x 50¢ = $400,000. Then add in the price of the LED fixtures (things that hold the LEDs): about $50 per fixture; so 4,000 x $50 = $200,000. Now add in labor; $200,000 to have permits, and a large work force to get it done fast and well. So you have a grand total of: $400,000 + $200,000 + $200,000 = $800,000. LEDs vs. Fluorescent energy consumption is notable, but it could take decades to pay for itself, and really not have a big "green" effect your going for. In otherwords: your not going go convince them unless you give them an insane amount of money. If your looking to go green; try researching the benefits of geothermal heating/cooling, depending on where you live. And present that to your school board. I'm sure you school still uses boiler rooms; very inefficient. (our school also uses geothermal as well). Sorry that was so long, but I had to make sure you understood the price vs outcome. But do look for other ways for you school to go green! It's Great thing to do for you community!