Calculating the lighting performance gap in higher education classrooms

The background of performance gap measurement is outlined and field measurements are gathered and applied retrospectively to lighting upgrades in classrooms. The lighting upgrade projects in three university buildings and their assumptions are explained in relation to the operational hours proposed using the industry ‘Energy assessment and reporting method’. We used relatively inexpensive environmental data loggers, which can be implemented prior to upgrade works or energy efficiency retrofits. Our results reveal different patterns of lights on use, occupancy and booking hours from those assumed by a priori estimates. In our study, the consequence of reporting energy savings using assumptions and estimates in calculations for classrooms resulted in limited overall differences in the savings achieved in practice. However, despite the industry metrics of power consumption and carbon being reported significant wasted lighting hours were prevalent across all classrooms studied.