Assessing the electricity energy efficiency of university campus exterior lighting system and proposing energy-saving strategies for carbon emission reduction

This paper presents efficiencies research and energy-saving strategies for carbon emission reduction of the exterior lighting system of Avşar Campus of Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey. Once the campus’s average energy consumption for the previous five years was calculated, it was found to be 18,802 Megawatt hour/year (MWh/year), with 6,203 carbon dioxide (CO(2)) tons/year emissions. Also, the annual electrical energy consumption for exterior lighting was calculated as 670,395 MWh/year, with annual emissions of 221,170 CO(2) tons/year. Inefficient lamp choices in exterior lighting systems and longer than necessary operating times have been identified as the causes of these high values. That’s because High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps with an installed power of 109,050 Kilowatt (kW), which have a low efficiency but a high energy consumption, provide for 70% of exterior lighting. Thus, seven unique energy-saving strategies have been designed with the aim of decreasing total energy consumption and achieving more cost savings as well as less harmful emissions released into the atmosphere. All of the strategies were designed under the following three headings: dimming method, optimization of lamps’ operation times, and retrofitting lamps with new and technological ones. The study’s novelty lies in the creation of seven unique energy-saving strategies for the first time in light of the three headings highlighted, as well as their adjustment to a sophisticated campus with such high energy consumption. Once all of the proposed strategies are compared to the current system, it has been discovered that strategy-7 saves 81.656% energy consumption (547,418 MWh/year), 180,599 CO(2) tons/year saving, and € 49,268 (€/year) cost-saving. Such a low energy consumption is vital for a rapidly growing and expanding campus in terms of carbon emissions, cost savings, and environmental quality.