THE SWITCH

A majority of college campuses have large electricity bills. Out of these bills, lighting comes up at the top spot. Aging universities have larger bills than newly renovated ones, and with the University of Houston undergoing vast restructuring of parts of the university, it is paramount to find an appropriate plan to restructure the lighting system so that the university consumes less power while spending less to consume that amount.

Light Efficiency

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Areas at the University of Houston, especially the Fresh Foods dining hall and the UC Satellite, use a combination of lightbulbs to provide lighting for the facility. However, a majority of these light bulbs are still incandescent and halogen lightbulbs. These lightbulbs are inefficient, converting only around 10% of the energy supplied into light energy. The rest is given off as heat. Switching over to other light bulbs poses a question : What can we switch to, which provides the best efficiency?

Economical Efficiency

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Along with the usage of these current bulbs, the university has a large bill, considering the amount of power these bulbs use. Is switching to newer types of lightbulbs economically viable? What bulb would provide economical efficiency? Are we looking at short term gains or long term gains? What would the trade-offs be in order to achieve these gains?

Hours of Operation

 

These popular facilities at the university are open for unusual hours. The dining facility is open until midnight and the UC Satellite is open until 5:30 PM, which is an unusual time period of closure. Because of this, lights are usually left running for longer periods of times because these locations have popular activity, but after the areas are closed, some lights still keep running, which wastes energy and generates a larger energy bill. Is there any way to properly reduce light operations which can result in lower energy bills?

Problems