In a modern efficient classroom powered by renewable energy, what should be included? Figuring out how to design the classroom of the future is one of our goals. Here are some of the features we would put in a modern energy efficient classroom.
A LED (or better yet OLED) flat screen monitor powered by dc electricity, rather than a projector. Flat screens are much more efficient.
A computer powered by dc electricity.
USB-A and C ports around the room.
Dimable (automatically?) LED lights.
In each case the goal is to use dc power for all of the electrical needs of the classroom. One of our discoveries as been that stock LED lighting power supplies, ballasts as some still call them, (a holdover from fluorescent lighting) often work as well with dc power as ac power. Therefore switching to dc power is simple, as it does not require changing the LED fixtures. Flat screen TVs are ubiquitous but most are set up to only run on ac power. Finding a flat screen that uses an external power supply, a brick as they are often called, would solve this problem. It is possible that the ac-dc converters inside the flat screens would work fine with dc power, similar to the LED lighting fixtures. At the moment we are supplying the rooms with 400 Vdc, so although the lighting fixtures are often designed for high voltages because of commercial specifications, many other consumer products although compatible with dc may need lower voltage.
The Mean Well LED light fixture power supply not only works with dc power, it is UL approved for dc power.
