Under the leadership of Gary Smith, the Property Ministry has teamed up with the Justice in a Changing Climate Task Force to make our lighting more eco-friendly. Over the past year and a half, and with assistance from Skip Stoddard, Allan Beidler, and Sam Johnson, Gary has been replacing our four-foot fluorescent tubes with LED tubes. Gary reports that 48 tubes have been installed. The LEDs use 16 watts per tube while most of our fluorescent tubes used 40 watts of electricity. Additionally, whereas we used four fluorescents per fixture, only two LEDs are required per fixture. Gary estimates that we will save between 17.5 and 26.2 kWh per year. So we should realize many years of money and energy savings! The tubes will pay for themselves in less than eight years. And we can feel good about decreasing the carbon footprint of CUCC.
In addition to being more energy efficient and brighter, there are other advantages to the LEDs. They turn on instantly, and there will be none of the annoying flickering we sometimes get with the fluorescents. Also, they do not require ballast like our fluorescents. Another additional immediate benefit of the changeover is that the LEDs are dimmable! There is a dimmer in the fellowship hall; the two rows of lights nearest the flat-screen monitor can now be dimmed when needed. Just use the slider button next to the light switch.
One final advantage: they are rated to last nearly 50 years, meaning that the installers will not need to replace any!
