LEDs Just Better for CU

By Travis Weis

What are LEDs?

LEDs are a newer type of lights that can be all sorts of
different colors shapes and sizes. LED lights are way
more energy-efficient lighting; LED stands for light-emit-
ting diode meaning that they use something called a
semiconductor and as electrons pass through a semicon-
ductor it emits light, therefore, using less energy which
also will produce less heat than standard incandescent.
The traditional lights called incandescent or florescent
which work by taking an electric current and pushing it
through a small filament and heating it up enough to
produce light, and they vary in size wattage and voltage.
Incandescent lights also run very hot because it is just
an open electrical current and they do not use any
Photo by Justin Lane on Unsplash
means to stop the heat produced.
Why are LEDs Better for the Environment?
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash LED lights are better for the environ-
ment for a lot of different reasons
number one they are so much more
energy-efficient than regular light bulbs.
95% of the energy that goes to LEDs is
transferred to light, and only 5 % is
wasted and turned into heat. For
fluorescent and incandescent it is the
opposite, 95% is heat waste, and 5% is
converted to light. It is also essential to
consider that LEDs are more than 50%
more efficient when it comes to power
consumption.
In the article “The advantages of LED light for the Environment” they say “ LED lights also draw much less pow-
er than traditional lighting; a typical 84 watt fluorescent can be replaced by a 36 watt LED to give the same
level of light. Less energy use reduces the demand from power plants and decreases greenhouse gas emis-
sions.” So they are more efficient with there light they also take less power. Not only this, but they do not use
any toxic materials to work, whereas fluorescent lights have some harmful chemicals like mercury. LEDs also
last way longer than standard lights because heat is one of the main factors that ruin electronics and since
LEDs have heat pads they are way better ant controlling the levels of heat they emit meaning the reduced
amount of heat on its parts makes it lasts 6 times longer than traditional lighting.
Example at CU
At CU the lights in all of the dorm hallways and halls of most
academic buildings are always on, they just stay on 24 hours a
day 7 days a week. As well as the light in students dorm rooms
that students leave on even when they are not there, for
instance, using energy cap from the CU website I can see in
total for all of CUs commodities used over a year cost around
40 million dollars to maintain, more than a third of that cost
comes from the amount of energy that is used to power the
buildings. That is significantly larger than any other
commodity found in on CUs campus. If we can assume that
even ¾ of that energy is used by other appliances that are
found in dorm rooms, lec-ture halls, and offices, it is still 4
million dollars that are getting spent on the lights alone. Such
a simple change as going to LEDs not only makes sense from
the almost 2 million dollars a year it would save CU on top of
these lights lasting longer. It kind of makes you wonder why
they are not already doing this. Saving 2 million a year (not
counting how much cheaper LEDs are by not having to replace
them as much) means a lot to me at least because if LEDS
where implemented everywhere on campus it could have a
considerable decrease in energy usage.
What CU is Doing?
To CUs credit I will say that LED bars are slightly more expensive and replacing every single light with

an LED would take a lot of manpower and would be a massive investment for the university, not to mention

that is would be a lot of wasted Incandescent bulbs. However, I believe there could be a way to slowly imple-

ment LEDs into CU boulder, they could stop buying fluorescent lights and get the LED replacements and as

they go out slowly throw in the new ones. Thus not wasting facilities time and still, eventually, all of the lights

go to LEDs to give CU all of the benefits that I mentioned before.

In conclusion, though it would be quite an investment for CU to change every light because LED bars

are almost double the amount of standard fluorescent lights in the initial cost. However, the energy bill would

have a huge chunk taken out and LED lights last way longer than them so CU would see a return on their

investment almost immediately. Honestly, this change makes sense if we do what I mentioned previously

where we by replacement LEDs and slowly implement them into buildings. We could make CU way more

energy efficient.
 Works Cited
Agrell, David. “Everything You Need to Know About LED Light Bulbs.”
Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 14 Nov. 2017, https://www.popu-
larmechanics.com/home/how-to/a10104/everything-you-need-to-know-
about-led-light-bulbs-16542040/.

Sepco. “The Advantages of LED Lights for the Environment.” The Advan-
tages of LED Lights for the Environment, https://www.sepco-solarlighting.
com/blog/bid/145611/the-advantages-of-led-lights-for-the-environment.
“Incandescent: Light Bulb Types.” Bulbs.com, https://www.bulbs.com/
learning/incandescent.aspx.

Bowen, Kimberly. “How Do LED Light Bulbs Work?” TopTenReviews, Top

Ten Reviews, 13 Sept. 2015, https://www.toptenreviews.com/how-do-led-
light-bulbs-work.

Butzer, Stephanie. “Students Can Earn $1,000 with Sustainable, Positive

Actions.” KMGH, 1 Apr. 2019, https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/
local-news/cu-boulder-students-can-help-pay-for-their-tuition-by-taking-
sustainable-positive-actions.

CU Energy Cap