The use of LEDs reduced electricity consumption by 15 times in an experimental house in Novolukoml

April 4, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. LED lamps from the republican scientific and production unitary enterprise "Center for LED and Optoelectronic Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus" made it possible to reduce electricity consumption by 15 times in an experimental house. The pilot project of the Center and the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services for testing LED lamps in real operating conditions has been completed in Novolukoml (Chashniksky district of Vitebsk region), the director of the unitary enterprise of housing and communal services "Kommunalnik" of Novolukoml, Leonid Polonnik, told a BELTA correspondent. For the experiment, two new four-entrance five-story residential buildings were selected a month ago. LED lamps produced by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus were installed in one of them, and ordinary incandescent lamps were installed in the other. Both houses are equipped with automatic control systems - motion sensors, thanks to which the light in the stairwells is on only when there are people there. During the operation of the two types of lamps, specialists compared their lighting parameters, energy efficiency, operating costs, and reliability. Residents of the experimental house immediately noted that a 9.8 W LED lamp shines much brighter than a conventional 40 W incandescent lamp, and the light is comfortable for the eyes. In March, 8 kWh were consumed for lighting the stairwells, while in the reference house, where ordinary lamps are used, 127 kWh were used for these purposes. According to specialists' calculations, by the end of the current year, LED lamps will save Br185,000. At the same time, the cost of one such lamp is about Br200,000, and at least 20 of them are needed for the entire house. According to Leonid Polonnik, the price of the lamps is quite high for the subsidized housing and communal services, but as their production develops and competition in the market increases, it will decrease. Novolukoml utility workers decided to continue the experiment and purchased LED lamps produced by Mogilev OJSC "Technopribor". Their cost is half that of those produced by the Center for LED and Optoelectronic Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences. As in the first experiment, the comparison of ordinary and LED lamps will take place over a month in two four-entrance residential buildings. As Leonid Polonnik noted, the "Kommunalnik" enterprise, implementing the provisions of Directive No. 3 "Economy and thrift are the main factors of the state's economic security," is actively working on the introduction of energy-saving technologies. Novolukoml utility workers were among the first in the Vitebsk region to equip apartment buildings with motion sensors. Thanks to this, 219 kWh of electricity are saved per house per year. The enterprise has replaced heat exchangers in residential buildings and introduced remote water consumption metering. City streets are illuminated using automatic systems. Thanks to energy-saving measures, utility workers saved Br119 million in 2010. Additional income goes to current and capital repairs of the housing stock, as well as to further implementation of new energy-efficient technologies.-0-