Madison Area Technical College has joined half a dozen schools worldwide in LED University . It's a program that allows participating schools to network with each other on the emerging light technology. Tom Helbig, District Electrician at MATC, calls it an opportunity to go green and save energy.
Helbig adds the higher efficiency lighting systems also allow dimming meaning they can use the minimum energy needed to light an area.
It is a young technology which means higher initial costs for some applications.
"There's stuff out there that looks good that we can't even think about installing," says Helbig.
However, he says costs are declining for certain products as time passes.
The school had already been taking steps to change over to LED's. The facility is achieving, on average, a 30% reduction in energy use for lighting. MATC is the second Wisconsin institute get involved with the program, Marquette University is other.