Did you know? Making good use of daylight in a classroom can reduce lighting costs by 19%.
In many schools, classrooms can have excessive lighting installed. This is often arranged so that individual rows of light fittings can be switched separately.
Follow the steps below to identify those lights which do not need to be switched on under normal daylight, and to implement a programme to ensure they remain switched off.
1. With your Energy Team, identify which rooms in the school have multiple light switches which allow rows or groups of fittings to be controlled independently.
2. Choose a day with average levels of daylight (i.e. overcast day/not too sunny) and carry out the following procedures in each room.
3. Switch off all the lights and then, starting furthest from the window, switch each row back on one at a time. Each time consider whether there is an adequate amount of light to work effectively at desk level. (Note: in some classrooms, it is lighting installed close and adjacent to an internal wall that is best left off).
4. When you feel there is an acceptable amount of light in the room, stop switching.
5. In consultation with the class teachers in these rooms, discuss your findings and get their agreement as to which rows of lights could normally be left switched off. If teachers are uncertain about progressing this, try switching off one set of lights nearer the window and see if the pupils notice in the next class.
6. Once identified, mark up the respective switches with red stickers in order to indicate to the staff and pupils that these marked switches are not to be used unless necessary (i.e. at night, on a very overcast day, or if a pupil needs more lights on).
7. You could also use green stickers for lights/switches that should be used as needed. Red Dots – Do not touch and do not use (override this as necessary at teachers’ discretion) Green Dots – Switch and use lights as required
8. Some schools have used different shapes with the colours to assist those that may be colour blind.