THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city zoo is planning to slash its electricity bills at one go. The 55-acre campus of the Napier Museum and Zoo is shifting to LEDs as part of cutting down on power consumption, Minister for Museums and Zoos P K Jayalakshmi told the Assembly on Monday. ‘’The electricity bills come to about Rs 2 lakh. LEDs will be introduced along with solar-energy power lighting on the campus,’’ Jayalakshmi said. According to her, KELTRON has been entrusted with the job. Considered the future of lighting, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have a stupendous burning life compared to incandescent bulbs and the currently-popular Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL). LEDs consume much less energy than either incandescent bulbs or CFLs and have a life of about 50,000 hours. But they have not achieved the same level of popularity owing to one prohibitive factor - cost. They cost up to three times the cost of a CFL at present. But this is expected to come down in future. Also, they don’t pose problems in disposal like CFLs, which contain mercury. The LED idea is slowly catching on in the state. The Energy Management Centre (EMC), Kerala, the nodal agency for Bureau of Energy Efficiency initiatives in the state, had piloted an LED initiative at the Peringottukurissi Panchayat in Palakkad district recently. Jayalakshmi also told the Assembly that the K C S Panicker Gallery on the Museum campus was being renovated. An automatic ticket vending machine was planned for the zoo and the Museum. There is also a plan to improve the water supply to the campus.
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