
When it comes to reducing the amount of electricity your school uses, installing LED lighting is top of the list. It would be ideal if schools had the funding to install LED lighting throughout their school all at one time, but if you haven’t here’s an approach you might like to consider.
Know your facts
LED lighting may be considered a “nice to have” given other pressures on school budgets, but there are a number of compelling reasons why schools should be investing in upgrading to LED, as set out below.
In the UK, different types of fluorescent tubes have been phased out from September 2023 and February 2024 which means that they are no longer being manufactured. This is because legislation has been passed – the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2012 (as amended) – to restrict the use of harmful substances in electrical goods, particularly the use of mercury in lighting products. Schools will still be able to purchase fluorescent tubes whilst stocks last but, inevitably stocks will run out leaving schools with no alternative but to install LED lighting.
Most schools have fluorescent lighting with an average life of up to 10,000 hours, but up to 30% of the energy used by fluorescent lighting is given off in heat rather than light. LED lighting has an average life span of 50,000 hours and converts 95% of its energy into light, giving off only 5% in heat. LED lighting is up to 80% more efficient than fluorescent lighting which means that in the long run, they are more cost efficient although the initial cost is higher. If your LED lights were left to run for 24 hours a day every day, they shouldn’t need changing for an average of 5 years, so the amount of usage in a school should mean that your LED lights won’t need changing for more than 10 years. Of course, this also means that LED lighting is better for the environment so it should be part of your school or Trust’s sustainability strategy.
LED lights don’t flicker or buzz and they can provide the same amount of light with fewer light fittings; they’re also low maintenance. This means a considerable reduction in the amount of time spent in changing lighting, purchasing and storing spare lighting, and recycling lighting. For every one LED lamp that reaches end of life, there would be 5 fluorescent lamps requiring disposal, a waste reduction of 80%. Also, if you have high level lighting that requires a cherry picker to access for maintenance, LED lights are definitely the way to go because of the money you’ll save in maintenance alone.
How to implement LED lighting on a budget
So now you know the facts and the benefits of installing LED lighting, but you still haven’t got the funding. Here are a number of suggestions to achieve LED lighting on a budget.
- Identify where LED lighting will have the most impact –
Research suggests that lighting can impact wellbeing, behaviour and performance. It makes sense, therefore, to start installing LED lighting in classrooms first rather than other spaces such as corridors. - Mark up areas of your school which already have LED lighting –
Recording this information on a school building plan will show at a glance which areas have full or partial LED lighting installed. - Ask a suitable contractor to carry out a lighting survey –
This will enable you to identify how many LED light fittings you will need in each room which may be less than your current number of fluorescent light fittings. - Implement full LED lighting in areas with partial LED lighting –
This will assist with lighting maintenance because those rooms with full LED lighting shouldn’t need any maintenance for a number of years. Premises staff will then only need to check the non-LED lighting areas of the school for failing lights resulting in a saving of time. - Identify cost effectiveness of LED installations –
The easiest way to install LED lighting is on a piecemeal basis replacing fluorescent lighting when it fails with LED lighting, but this may not be the most cost effective way of doing this. It may be more cost effective to replace all the lighting in a classroom at once. - Keep any redundant but working fluorescent lights as they’re replaced with LED –
Use these as replacements for other fluorescent lights in your school as they fail in the future. - Record the date when fluorescent lights fail –
This will give you an indication of when fluorescent light fittings of a similar age are likely to fail and need replacing. - Check in regularly with your lighting suppliers –
As stocks of fluorescent light fittings continue to decrease, prices are likely to increase. Therefore, it may become more cost effective to install LED lighting simply because they’re cheaper than fluorescent light fittings. - Keep finance staff informed of the situation –
You’re likely to have some notice of when fluorescent lights are no longer available from your suppliers, so ensure that you keep finance staff informed of when significant investment in LED lighting is likely to be required so that they can budget for it.

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