University of the Visayas goes green

MANILA, Philippines - The University of the Visayas (UV) is stepping up its efforts to do its share in mitigating the pressing global issue which is climate change. Recently the university has adopted the greening of its basketball gymnasium by replacing the lighting systems with LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes.

All 24 metal halide lamps, with a power consumption of 400 watts each that used to illuminate the gymnasium, have been replaced with brighter and less energy consuming LED lights. This move will mean a huge savings of roughly P135,000 in a year. With its old metal halide lamps, the UV Gym used up an average 12,000 watts of electricity daily. This has been drastically brought down with the usage of LED lights that is powered by only 2,200 watts daily.

“I am very happy with how much we are able to save by using LED lamps. But what I am most proud of is how we are contributing to the global efforts to save the environment. And that is true because we will be able to bring down greenhouse gas emission or an equivalent reduction of 12 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) this year simply by changing our lights in the gymnasium. And this is just the beginning. We will look at other areas where we can contribute to saving Mother Earth and hopefully in the long term help in avoiding disasters like the recent flooding in Manila,” discloses Jiji Gullas, prime mover of the university’s green campaign.

The advances in the solid state lighting (SSL) particularly in LED lighting systems have resulted to significant milestones in achieving energy savings, longer lifespan and better illumination in most general lighting applications such as outdoor and indoor illumination as compared to the traditional incandescent or fluorescent lamps. LEDs have been developed to last for at least 35,000-50,000 hours as compared to the 5,000 - 10,000 hours that the traditional lighting like metal halide and CFLs have. This further result to fewer spent lamps in the landfill and less frequent lamp purchasing or changing.

Likewise, LED lights generate less heat than metal halide and CFLs. And with the proper heat management techniques, it could dissipate heat totally. This would then decrease the load on air conditioning systems, reduce the danger of burning from touching the light lamps and reduce fire hazard. LED lights typically use less power (watts) per unit of light generated (lumens). A qualified LED light only consumes half of the power of a traditional lamp to achieve the same illumination which means there would be less greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and lower electric bills for the consumers.

Global experts have actually confirmed that LED-based lighting systems can also reduce total cost of ownership (TCOO) by reducing maintenance and waste disposal costs as well as electricity charges when compared to traditional incandescent or fluorescent lamps.

For its green initiatives, UV utilized the expertise of Greenworld LED Solutions, Inc. the leading supplier of indoor and outdoor LED general lighting systems, embedded with high-quality Light Emitting Diodes (LED) chips like Nichia (Japan) and Cree (USA), achieving brightness, endurance and energy-savings in most general lighting applications.

“Being green has its premium but the short term impact on our expenses and the long term effects to the environment makes it worth pursuing. And this is something that any company or organization can adopt,” added Gullas.