Shining a light on LED technology

Exploring the benefits of upgrading to LED light sources in schools

By Steven Messner

Quality and uniform lighting is crucial to creating effective learning environments. With the cost of electricity on the rise and the ever-present need to maintain and repair fixtures, supplying students with the lighting they need to create comfortable and engaging classrooms can feel like an increasing challenge. But thanks to rapidly emerging LED technology, lighting schools is quickly becoming a much easier – and cheaper – task.

Brent Farbridge serves as both the manager of facilities and energy manager for the Burnaby School District, overseeing 56 buildings, and is no stranger to the toll that maintaining quality lighting can be. For Farbridge, LED lights are an exciting new technology.

“LED is the way we’re going, and we’re ready to jump in with both feet,” he says.

Across the Burnaby School District, most interior lights are the standard T8 fluorescent tubes. But as LED becomes more affordable, Farbridge is looking to swap out fluorescent lights and replace them with LED fixtures. The benefits are just too great not to.

“The big thing for us is the power,” Farbridge says. “LED lights can use about a third of the power as the older fluorescent lights. As far as reducing our energy consumption and our carbon footprint, LED is the way to go.”

Another big positive is that LED lights last around five times longer than their fluorescent counterparts. Even though the tubes can easily sell for six times the cost of fluorescent tubes, Farbridge estimates many highly used fixtures will pay off their cost within only three years. “Our maintenance costs are going to go way down,” Farbridge says. “If you only have to change that light bulb once every 10 years, versus once every three years, that’s a big benefit.”

BC Hydro is also giving rebates on LED fixtures based on a number of requirements, a program that Farbridge is happy to take advantage of to further make retrofitting LED lights in Burnaby schools even more lucrative.

LED lighting technology doesn’t just help keep costs down either, it can also help create a more comfortable environment for learning. Farbridge describes how fluorescent tubes draw power at 60 hertz, causing them to flicker 120 times a second, which some students can find distracting, even causing headaches or worse. Fortunately, properly installed LED lights don’t have this problem. Another useful aspect is that many LED fixtures can be dimmed, giving teachers better control over lighting in their classrooms—a feature also available in fluorescent tubes, but at a much higher cost and more complicated installation.

As the LED technology continues to improve, finding fixtures is also becoming easier with more models being made available at an increasing rate. While the Burnaby School District is just beginning to make preparations for installing LED lights in the interiors of its facilities, a project to swap out the exterior lighting is well underway. Using LED fixtures for floodlights provides a much more accurate colour clarity compared to the yellowish glow of high-pressure sodium bulbs, and with the long-term savings, schools can add even more lights while still saving big.

For the exterior lighting, Farbridge has been using the Beghelli Mezo 10-watt LED. There’s also the Cooper Crosstour, which comes in a variety of wattages and can also be mounted to an octagonal box and used as a floodlight. For interiors, Philips offers a number of kits for retrofitting T-bar fixtures, as well as InstantFit LED lamps which can easily fit into any compatible fluorescent fixtures.

Looking forward, LED seems poised to revolutionize cost-effective lighting for schools. As the Burnaby School District gears up to overhaul its lighting solutions, Farbridge is looking forward to providing his schools with the latest and most efficient lighting available.

“For us, it’s about saving taxpayer dollars and reducing maintenance costs. As utility costs only get higher, LED lights are going to pay off quicker. It’s beneficial to everyone.” p