Schools Save With LED Lighting

A positive learning environment is extremely important to your child’s education.  Most would not think of lighting being a factor in the learning environment; it not only effects how your child learns, it also affects the type of education that their school can provide.  Not only can children benefit from a stable, well lit learning environment; schools can afford to provide a higher quality education if they are energy conscious.  Reduced energy bills can free up need cash for other pressing and important requirements like buying new books, computers or upgrading teaching infrastructure. 

Close to 40 schools in Austin are saving $480,000 annually ($12,000 per school) after energy saving retrofits.  The Twin Falls school district revamped the energy systems of 11 schools and achieved savings of US $3.5 million per annum that works out to almost $319,000 per school. The US Green Building Council estimated that on an average a green school would be able to save at least $100,000 per annum. Translated into education equivalent terms – these green schools would save enough money to “hire two new teachers, buy 200 new computers, or purchase 5,000 new textbooks.” They further estimate that over the next ten years green schools could save $20 billion in energy bills alone. With over 95,000 public elementary and secondary schools and 29,000 plus private schools in the United States - the target seems to be well within reach.

So how can schools potentially reach these savings?  Lighting and heating are the two most important heads of energy consumption in a school, with lighting being the single biggest source of energy consumption.  As much as 50% of the electricity bills of a school are from lighting alone; however, despite this, lighting is also the area where it is easiest to reduce electricity bills.  Replacing incandescent and fluorescent lights with LED bulbs can increase energy efficiency by up to 9 times.  This means LED’s can achieve the same levels of illumination while using up to 90% less electricity.  Schools can also reduce their electricity bill by using lower wattage bulbs and de-lamping – which means placing lights strategically so not as not to lessen the lighting coverage.  De-lamping is also effective since LED’s provide better light levels through producing directional light.
 
New Tek Partners offers an alternative to the strobe-like effect of fluorescent lights in the LEDGREEN LED light tube.  Casting a calm, natural light, this LED light tube eliminates the inconvenient and potentially harmful flickering.  Computer desk lamps, bathroom lights and other bulbs of varying shapes and sizes are found throughout schools.  New Tek Partners provides a multitude of LED bulbs that can be used for such applications.  Next time you are in your child’s school, take notice of the lighting and think how it can affect their education.

LED Lighting: Positively Impacting Your Child’s Education

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of your child’s education is the quality of teaching.  But what about the environment your child learns in?  It is just as important as a good school or a good teacher.  Incandescent lighting is known to produce chalkboard glare and flickering strobe-like effects, which negatively impact your child’s ability to learn.  Children with learning disabilities, especially autism spectrum disorder (ASD), can be even more affected by these lighting issues.  For children with ASD, controlling the learning environment and keeping it consistent is important to promoting their development.

Those with ASD are prone to visual and auditory sensitivities which cause them to be hyper-reactive to environmental cues, such as lighting and sound.  Perceiving fluorescent lighting cycles as having a strobe-like effect can also trigger an increase in seizure activity from children with ASD.  Both for children with ASD and without, focus is an important factor in learning retention.  Incandescent lighting, with its harsh glare, can cause headaches and even migraines.  This adverse effect can lead to agitation; especially in those with ASD, who can often have a lack of skill in interacting with others and who are sensitive to environmental triggers which detract from managing learning disabilities. 

New Tek Partners offers an alternative to the strobe-like effect of fluorescent lights in the LED GREEN light tube.  Casting a calm, natural light, this LED light tube eliminates the inconvenient and potentially harmful flickering.  Conventional fluorescent lights utilize a ballast to create the voltage and current necessary to start and illuminate the light.  The “humming” sound so often associated with fluorescent lights is caused by this ballast.  Fortunately, New Tek Partner’s LED GREEN light tube has no need for ballasts, thus eliminating noise interference and keeping the environment in your children’s classroom free of noisy lighting.  When exploring your child’s classroom for the first time, be sure to notice the lighting and consider what effects it can have on your children’s health and learning ability.

Listen to a teacher explain the benefit LED lighting has had in her classroom: