Saving Energy and Reducing Maintenance By Changing to LED Lighting

Trustees, Environmental Stewardship Work Area and S.O.S. continue to join together to change to LED lighting in key high usage areas of our church’s building. You may have noticed that some of the rooms and hallways are a little brighter. 

Chapel Hall was the first room to have all the fluorescent tubes replaced with LED light tubes. A team of S.O.S. workers washed and retrofit all the fixtures and put in LED tubes in Chapel Hall and its kitchen this past September. Those of you who attended Sunday early services in that room, due to the elevator repair challenge, immediately saw the difference. 

Next, during the October S.O.S., a number of staff offices on the second floor, the PAD’s entrance hall by the gym and the main hallways on the west half of the second floor were changed to LED lighting. Additional LED tubes have been purchased to retrofit key difficult or dangerous fixtures in stairways throughout the church. These installations will happen during future S.O.S. work Saturdays.

LED lighting uses much less electricity to provide the same light than the traditional incandescent and fluorescent lighting. The LED tubes use about 1/3 of the electric power to generate the same amount of light as long-tube fluorescent tubes. Additionally, depending on usage, they will last from 5 to 10 years, or over four times longer than the lighting being replaced. This is a great benefit for the difficult or dangerous fixtures in stairwells or high ceiling areas. 

About a year ago, the Environmental Stewardship Work Area purchased LED bulbs for the parlor on the first floor. You may have noticed that this room is a little brighter. These LED bulbs use about 1/10 of the electric power to generate the same amount of light as incandescent light bulbs. Another great thing is that LEDs are available at local hardware and big box stores like Home Depot, Lowes and Menards.