The education of our children is no joke, and something that should concern parents. When choosing where to live or work, families have to often consider the quality of schools in an area. Often, the local education system is best judged by levels of enrollment, experience of teachers, and standardized testing scores, but there is one thing often overlooked that can differentiate the quality of schools: Are they using LED lighting?
Safety
You must be wondering how LED lights have anything to do with the education of my children? LED lights actually offer quite a few benefits to a student’s overall educational experience. First, they allow for a safer school environment for your children.
In recent years, schools have made efforts to overhaul their facilities for the safety and wellbeing of those enrolled. Updating fire-codes, removing asbestos, installing central air/heating, etc. have slowly been implemented in schools across the country. However, have you ever considered the fluorescent lights above your children’s heads?
Old T12 fluorescent ballasts contain harmful contaminants such as Polychlorinated Biphenls (PCBs) and mercury. Both of these chemicals can lead to harmful health effects on the immune, nervous and endocrine system. If a fluorescent tube were to accidentally shatter, your children would be exposed to these harmful chemicals.
LEDs are free of harmful chemicals and completely recyclable. LEDs also produce no UV light, as fluorescent lights do, which puts your children at risk of cataract formation and macular degeneration.
Brighter Learning Environments
With LED fixtures, you no longer have issues with glare or flickering in your lights. While it may seem like a trivial concern, this has a direct influence on students. Glare may cause both teachers and students to squint and cause discomfort and, in turn, makes it more difficult to focus in the classroom.
Flickering lights, often an issue of fluorescent fixtures, can create a distraction in the classroom. In fact, people with autism are especially sensitive to flickering fluorescent lights, and it can lead to headaches and eyestrain. With LED lights, you can easily eliminate these issues and ensure the education of your children is on track.
Circadian Rhythm
We’ve discussed it before in previous blogs, but circadian rhythm is so incredibly important for the development of your children. Fluorescent bulbs create the same, dim yellow glow that we’ve grown so familiar with growing up, but it was never conducive to a proper learning environment.
With the flexibility of LED lights, teachers can tune how warm or cool their lights appear, optimizing class performance based on the time of day and what students are doing.
With warm lights, a cooperative, interactive, and more creative learning environment is enabled. While with cool lights, students can increase their attention and focus during times of study or testing.
Extra Savings
Of course, LED lights are not only beneficial to the students, but to the school building itself.
With a complete shift to LED fixtures, schools can save thousands on their electricity bill throughout the year.
In a roundabout way, this also benefits your children. The money your school saves on energy costs, can be used to support funding for new books, lab equipment for classrooms, or extra money to fund the band or athletic department, all thanks to LED lighting.
Although often overlooked as a minor feature, LED lighting in schools makes a huge difference. With LEDs, students can live healthier and learn more effectively, and schools can save more to invest more. Not only do LEDs create brighter lights, but create brighter students in the classroom!
