We’ve been experimenting with LED lighting sources as an alternative way to reduce our monthly electricity needs. And I can say that I’ve been quite successful, but … I know there’s much more we could reduce those watts by…
So, in January, we might try replacing our school lighting in the most heavily used rooms with CFL bulbs instead of strip lighting. We’ve already added accents in one corner using typical LED spotlights, and more powerful CFL bulbs.
While there are attractive options like Murray Feiss lighting, for a basic classroom, you need practicality rather than beauty: ease of installation, brighter lights, easy to replace, and safe to use.
Strip lights are all of these, but they are ugly, too. I think we could easily cut our lighting bill for classrooms by 1/3 by switching out the strips. But LEDs are just TOO dim to replace much, and if we could get them sufficiently bright, they would be quite expensive to buy AND use. I’ve seen LEDs that consume almost as much power as smaller CFLs.