“Energy saving in research and study education activities”,
Prof. Hiroto OGAWA, Faculty of Science, Dept. of Biological Sciences
In March 2019, our Office collected proposals about this subject and adopted Prof. OGAWA’s “Electric power saving and reduction of environmental load by updating the light source of microscope”. (reference: Result Report)
We replaced the light source for microscope of mercury lamps with LED. In the case of mercury lamps, the life of the bulb used to be shortened significantly by turning them on and off on frequent basis, so we had to leave them on during the day when we planned to use them. The average usage time was 5 to 6 hours per day.
After replacing with LED, the total lighting time was reduced to 13 minutes and 26 seconds per day, thus the power consumption went down to 1/3. As such we succeeded in reducing the amount of electricity per day from 6.2 kWh to 0.08kWh. This shows how long we had unnecessary lighting time when using mercury lamps.
Also, as a spillover effect, the heat generation when lighting has been significantly reduced, and we expect that in summer using time of air-conditioner to be shortened or the room temperature to be set rather warmer. According to the students and researchers, the time to turn on is now short, the operation is stable, the brightness control is easy, so their research efficiency has been improved.
newly replaced fluorescent stereomicroscope