Cost Effective Carbon Mitigation through Energy Efficiency: A Case for a University Student Residence Lighting in Cape Town

This paper investigates the cost effectiveness of lighting technologies and their role in mitigating carbon emissions through a case study of a university student residence in Cape Town, South Africa. Different commercially available lighting technologies will be compared in terms of their energy consumption and associated costs (both running and installation costs) through Dialux Lighting simulations. The results from the investigations show that of the three lighting technologies (incandescent, fluorescent and LED), LEDs are the most energy efficient and cost effective (in the long run) and thus LED lighting fixtures would play a considerable role in mitigating carbon emissions in the cost effective manner. Traditional incandescent lights are the highest energy consumers and their running costs are far higher than those of fluorescent and LEDs.