ENERGY AND COST EFFECTIVENESS OF LIGHTING SYSTEMS IN SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND ENVIRONMENT OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

As the world population starts to grow increasingly, energy consumption is expected to rise, leading to the contribution of the world's phenomenon cause, which is global warming. Lighting, used in any living environment is considered one of the major contributor towards energy consumption. Hence, to curb the energy usage, one could raise awareness to the society on adopting energy efficient or low energy lighting system design and performance. One such system would be the implementation of LED lighting. This paper would present a literature review on the needs for energy savings and Singapore's initiatives in taking a step forward to save energy. A comparison study on the type of lightings in terms of performance, energy and economic factor would be evaluated. With that, the literature would end with several case studies on good design and energy efficient lighting system. Thereafter, this paper will also review on the various approaches towards types of lighting and its design to be adopted by the School of Design and Environment (SDE) faculty buildings in National University of Singapore (NUS). Through the discussion and analysis of the various approach, NUS would learn about how the different lighting system design would be effective for mass implementation based on the total energy consumption and total electrical cost estimated per semester. Not overlooking on how the pros would outweigh the cons for each lighting design. The outcome of the research has proven that the approach on LED retrofit has advantages over fluorescent lamps in terms of performance, energy and economic criterion. An estimate of 50% energy savings could be accounted for retrofitting with LED. Moreover, the energy efficiency is believed to be further improved with the integration of lighting control technologies. Thus, this would enable NUS to look into adopting the most energy efficient and cost effective method of lighting system.