Zechman proposes new light bulbs for schools

The county’s Education Committee chairman, Bill Zechman, is putting his energy-conservation advocacy where his mouth is by utilizing compact fluorescent bulbs in his own home, and advocating a change to this type of illumination for the Warren County School System to help save on energy costs.

Zechman has been joined in his efforts by his fellow members of the Education Committee, which had a meeting last night. The committee meet with school officials and other interested people to encourage the system to adopt energy-saving practices and to offer leadership to the student body and the entire community in wisely reducing energy consumption.

‘I think we can accomplish these goals without sacrificing economic vitality or human conveniences,’ Zechman said. ‘We can do it by using modern technologies and smart management to improve efficiency. In other words, the same or higher output with less input.’

In fact, Zechman is even utilizing a compact fluorescent light in the Halloween decorations in the front yard of his home.

‘The compact fluorescent bulb that powers the Zechman jack-o’-lantern is an excellent example of a low-cost, immediate step toward greater efficiency,’ Zechman said. ‘That one bulb has a power input of 25 watts, but produces the light-output equivalency of approximately 100 watts.

‘This greater efficiency is apparent to the touch,’ Zechman added. ‘The CFL is slightly warm when you place a finger on it, while an old-fashioned 100-watt bulb with a tungsten filament would scorch your hand. All that heat output represents wasted energy. It also leads to early failure of the bulb as it literally consumes itself while giving light.’

Zechman says he feels a move to compact fluorescent light bulbs, where feasible, could result in a significant savings in energy costs for county schools system-wide.

‘The Warren County school system has budgeted almost $1.3 million in fiscal year 2007-08 for electricity,’ Zechman said. ‘Not all of that, of course, goes for lighting,’ Zechman pointed out. ‘But if we could make a significant reduction in that fraction that is needed for illumination, we would simultaneously ease the expense burden on our taxpayers while reducing our impact on the global carbon dioxide output, a necessary by-product of electrical power generation from fossil fuels.’