SUSTAINABILITY

Reduction in electricity demand leads to reduction in need for electricity production.

In GIS building, more than half of the total energy supply is produced (Ricardo D. et al., 2015) within GIS building using clean energy sources such as fuel cell, photovoltaics, and geothermal energy. Furthermore, with efficient lighting control system and with limited use of electrical appliances, we can export the electricity produced by GIS to other buildings, enabling them to operate on clean energy. This not only reduces carbon foot print of GIS, but also helps in reducing the overall carbon footprint of RIT. According to the study conducted by Ricardo D. et al. (2015), GIS exports almost 2.5 million MWh of electricity in a year.

Passive building design with a combination of lighting control greatly helps in saving cost of electricity being utilized. For example, a conventional switch operates only in ‘on’ and ‘off’ position. But, in GIS using dimming control at 50% effectively uses 5 electricity bulbs instead of 10 electricity bulbs in a classroom even when all the lights are turned on. Further dimming to 15% reduces the effective usage of electricity bulbs to two bulbs.

This not only conserves electricity, but also number of hours being used by light bulbs, labor cost of replacing bulbs due to longer lifetime, and displacing cost of buying new bulbs frequently.

Social benefits of a good lighting control include good indoor environment and comfort, high productivity, and a better quality of life.