TECHNICAL PAPER
Lighting Systems Energy Efficiency Options by Eng’r. Aldrin R. de Guia Looking at what is happening at our world nowadays is a cause to alarm someone. There are many unexpected natural calamities that have taken place just recently. In Cebu City and Central Visayas, abnormally heavy rains triggered massive flash floods. Some coastal villages in Cebu were devastated by big waves and heavy floodings. In Mindanao, prolonged rains brought about the tail end of the cold front stormed in, overflowing several municipalities. In Australia, towns in the southern state of Victoria experienced the biggest floods in 200 years. All these things just happened within the month of January this year. What we have thought of as a very rare heavy rainfall that happened on September 26, 2009, tropical storm “ Ondoy “ seems to be repeating somewhere more frequently. Some advocates blame these events as causes of human activities, which result to “climate change”. Efforts to fight climate change has been done for years but based on what is happening to mother earth, it seems that they were not enough. Some group of nations call for a very strong commitment to solve climate change, one of the ways of energy reduction is efficiency in utilization of energy. Energy efficiency is vital for conserving energy resources, reducing green house gas emissions and carbon dioxide emissions that can contribute to climate change Technologies that are more energy efficient deliver the desired output using optimal amount of energy. The following are the energy efficiency options you can apply to your household, commercial establishment and industrial facilities. Compact Fluorescent lamp is an energy efficient replacement for incandescent bulbs. Compact fluorescent lamps only use about 25% of the energy consumed by incandescent bulbs with even better brightness level (lumens) and lasts 8 times longer. The 40 watts fluorescent lamp can be replaced with either 36 watts FL, 32 watts FL or 24 watts FL (with adapter). The electromagnetic ballast which consumes around 10 watts used in the operation of the 40 watts FL can be replaced with electronic ballast
which only consumes 2 -3 watts. This will give you around 75% energy savings. In warehouse areas or outdoor applications mercury vapor lamps may be replaced with energy efficient metal halide lamps. A 250 watts mercury vapor can be replaced with a 70 watts metal halide lamp. This would yield 74% energy savings. Another energy efficient lighting replacement you can do is the replacement of halogen lamps with high pressure sodium. A 300 watts halogen lamps can be replaced with 70 watts high pressure sodium lamps. Despite of the significant wattage reduction, the high pressure sodium lamps can deliver the same or better brightness. Presently, the most energy efficient lamp is the Light Emitting Diode. This lamp has a wide variety of application. It can be used as an indoor and outdoor lighting. It can also be used as decorative lighting, advertising and road sign lighting. By replacing a 40 watts fluorescent lamps system with an LED, a 52% energy savings is achieved. Although LED comes with a higher cost, it has promising benefits such as being environmental friendly because it has no mercury content, very low operating temperature as compared with other types of lamps and has long life. These new lighting technologies are initially more expensive compared to the conventional units most of us use. However, considering the energy savings and environmental benefits, a careful attention to their use must be considered.
34 THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER MAGAZINE 4TH QUARTER 2010