GE Lighting has detailed an LED-lighting project at the Davao Medical School Foundation teaching facilities in Davao City, Philippines. The school installed upwards of 1000 LED-based tubes in place of existing fluorescent lighting in its main facility. Moreover, the school recently finished construction on a new audio-visual (A/V) building that also hosts a dental laboratory, and nearly 1000 GE downlights are used in the new facility.
The medical school project is unique in that the foundation is a non-profit organization that has sought since 1976 to increase the availability of doctors in rural areas of the country. The foundation doesn't have the available funds of a commercial medical facility yet escalating energy costs attributable to lighting led to the decision to spend sparse funds, totaling around $20,000, on solid-state lighting (SSL).
"Davao Medical School Foundation is an institution that molds and trains students in the medical fields of Dentistry and Medical Doctors. It is best that we give our students a well-lit environment that is conducive for their studies," said Carlos Salazar, chief of the engineering department at Davao Medical School Foundation. "We used to spend nearly $49,000 on electricity bills per annum. Compared to the old fluorescent lights, GE Lighting's new LED solution at the current school building will give us an estimated energy savings of about $31,600. This is a significant benefit for a school like ours. The faculty members and students are also enjoying improved illumination across the school facilities and vastly reduced maintenance downtime."
In the existing building, the school replaced older T8 lighting that primarily uses magnetic ballasts. The GE LED tubes installed were a mix of 18W and 19W products. The tubes are rated for 40,000 hours of life and feature efficacy of 97 lm/W. The school said the SSL tubes deliver 40% baseline savings.
Meanwhile, in the new building that includes the dental lab, the school installed a combination of 10W and 15W Ecodownlights. Those products feature 85-lm/W efficacy and are rated for 25,000 hours of life. Moreover, the school said that the diffused glare-free beam was key to the selection of the downlights for the school.
The project had to pass rigorous scrutiny in terms of cost and benefits. "Our client is a non-profit organization approved by the Commission on Higher Education," said Ditas Alipao, country product manager of GE Lighting. "All expenditures must therefore be considered carefully and each dollar prudently spent. GE Sales Manager Vincent de Veza held intensive presentations to the school, with demonstrations of the proposed products, to boost our client’s understanding and confidence in the full solution. A cost analysis quickly showed the benefits of using GE’s lights, which offered higher lumens, enhanced product durability, and more cost efficient pricing in the longer term. The GE team continues to liaise closely with the school to provide a high level of support during and post-implementation."
