Bellevue College Student Sustainability Coordinators visited offices around campus and replaced about 70 old, energy-intensive incandescent light bulbs in desk lamps with new, state-of-the -art LEDs. Everybody’s familiar with Edison’s old incandescent which have been around for 133 years but many people are in the dark (HDHH) about LEDs which are basically a computer chip that puts out light much more efficiently than the older bulbs.
The bulbs were received for free from Puget Sound Energy as part of a their commercial rebate program. They are the TCP company’s LED8E26A1930K, lights that you can’t find on the company’s website but are available elsewhere on the web. They are pricey but since this is similar to computer technology Moore’s Law will take over making them cheaper & more efficient over time; it is inevitable that this technology will be the lighting wave of the future. Despite the high, initial investment the potential energy savings of these bulbs is almost $160 over their lifetime & the bulb pays for itself in a little over a year so it really is a wise investment.
Surprisingly there was very little resistance to the new bulbs. The vast majority of people who saw the new lights were pleased with the light and happy to save the college energy by using them. These are not the old, blue lights many people are familiar with in the LED world; they put off a pleasant, white light with excellent color rendering properties.
We thank everyone who participated in this program & were happy to get the opportunity to meet many interesting people all around campus. Stay tuned for the campus-wide retrofits which will provide dramatics savings and lighting improvements across the College.
Didn’t get your light bulb changed? Contact christian.stage@bellevuecollege.edu and we’ll send a student to your office.
Last Updated March 7, 2014