Fluorescent Lightbulbs Brighten Up Student Lives; Conserve Energy in the Process
By Paige Smith ‘09
News Staff Reporter
The 2007 Green Cup is in full swing and across campus students and faculty alike are switching off lights and unplugging chargers in an effort to conserve as much energy as possible. This past week, Choate dormitories received deliveries of energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and replaced all incandescent light bulbs in their desk laps.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are $2 to $3 more expensive than conventional light bulbs, but save 8-12 times the energy. They also produce about 70% less heat, making them a much safer alternative to the status quo.
Most of the academic buildings and offices on Choate’s campus use some form of fluorescent lighting. As part of an energy saving project this past summer, Choate replaced over 1,200 older lamps and ballasts with newer, more energy efficient fluorescent lamps and ballasts. The only incandescent lights bulbs remaining are in buildings where the type of fixture is not compatible with fluorescent lighting. The lighting in the dining hall, for example, which is dimmable, has not yet been replaced with fluorescent lighting. Any time a building is renovated or a new building project is undertaken, fluorescent lighting is always installed.
Before the start of the Green Cup, Choate had wanted to provide students with fluorescent light bulbs for their desk lamps in dorm rooms. For economic reasons, however, Facilities was hesitant to give every student a fluorescent light bulb that could potentially go to waste. Regina Depietto ’07, however, realized that fluorescent lighting is simply too important to not be incorporated into the Choate dormitories. She proposed that the fluorescent light bulbs be distributed to students who could trade in their old light bulbs and return them at the end of the year. With the help of an anonymous local firm, Choate ordered around 1,600 fluorescent light bulbs for desk lamps in the Choate dorms. Exeter, the biggest school in the Green Cup challenge, only ordered around 100 fluorescent light bulbs.
The benefits of using compact fluorescent lighting are becoming more apparent to people across the country thanks to the efforts of Wal-Mart. Since October, Wal-Mart has advocated the huge environmental benefits of fluorescent lighting to its large customer base. Wal-Mart has around 100 million customers; if all those costumers bought and used just one fluorescent light bulb each, it would keep 22 billion pounds of coal from burning at power plants and keep 45 billion pounds of greenhouse gasses out of the air--equivalent to the removal of 700,000 cars from the road.
Around the nation and within the Choate community fluorescent lighting is receiving attention. Andy Holden ‘07, Green Cup Captain in a senior dorm feels “that it is great that the school is providing us with more efficient light bulbs. I hope environmentally friendly changes like this will continue even after our school has finished competing in the Green Cup.” Alex Lundgren ‘09 who lives in a larger dorm said, “I think that that the light bulbs are a great idea and I’m glad more effort is being put into helping to improve our environment.”
The Choate community is hoping for a victory over Deerfield Academy in the 2007 Green Cup. The new energy efficient light bulbs are raising a new awareness across campus of the importance of protecting our environment.
Patty Ball ‘07 replaces her old lights with the new, energy efficient, CFLs.
