1,000 Bulbs, One Big Change
1,000 Bulbs - One Big Change is a student-led project aimed at affecting campus and community culture by increasing the use of LED technology on campus.
The goal is to change 1,000 bulbs in the personal lamps of faculty/staff on campus to LED bulbs. The project will save about $2,000 and 70,000 pounds of CO2 per year (at 2 hours per day as compared to a mixture of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs). The project will recycle all replaced bulbs and the 25,000 hour lifespan of the new bulbs (25x longer than an incandescent) will save over 500 bulbs per year.
The University spends about $20 million per year on electricity, and around 15-20% of that is lighting. This means that the University could save about $2 million per year by switching to LED lighting. Electricity use also makes up over 60% of UK's greenhouse gas emissions.
The project was started by UK student Jesse Peltan. He had worked on similar operations on different scales and wanted to bring the project to campus. He contacted fellow student Ben Troupe about some ideas and together they began planning. They received a grant from the Student Sustainability Council to fund the operation.
If you have any questions about the project, or would like to request a bulb change in a faculty office, please contact Jesse Peltan at jesse.peltan@uky.edu.