Friday, June 16 is #daylighthour at SUNY New Paltz where we’re turning off the lights and dedicating one hour to sun power!
How you can participate:
- Turn off the lights in your day-lit office for at least one hour, beginning at noon today.
- Visit your neighbor’s day-lit office and remind him or her that it’s daylight hour time.
- Explore shared common spaces (ie. bathrooms, conference rooms, etc) around your office. Can the lights in these spaces be turned off or only turned on when occupied?
Did you know.. Our Campus Sustainability Plan reported that 45% of the campus’ electricity usage is due to lighting.
Did you know… We’ve been upgrading to high-efficiency LEDs across campus? All exterior lighting are now LEDs and we’re now starting on interiors. Coykendall, Humanities, Jacobson Faculty Tower, and Lecture Center are converting to LEDs this summer. These interior and exterior upgrades were partially funded by Central Hudson’s commercial lighting rebate program. LEDs are now a campus standard for all design & construction projects as well as when we need to replace lights that burn out! LeFevre Hall is all LEDs and Bevier Hall will be all-LED. LEDs are also the standard light bulb given to on campus students at RA offices when their lamps burn out.
Why it’s important… Most offices have their lights on even when they are not needed. Spaces near exterior walls often receive enough daylight to work by, without the aid of electric lighting, but most often we leave the lights on anyway. This is a critical issue because the times when daylight is most available (workday afternoons) coincides with peak demand – the time when our our society demands the most energy from the grid. This peak energy is the most expensive energy, and typically the dirtiest and most harmful to our global climate because the oldest, least efficient plants are brought online to meet this need. Especially, during the heat of the summer on those really hot days.
#daylighthour #npsocial #npgreen
