New light is beaming down on our mission these days: both indoors and out.
As our sub-Arctic springtime continues its march towards summer, daylight is increasing at a rate of more than six minutes per day. It’s the annual routine for denizens of Western Alaska, but even for lifelong residents, the change can feel drastic. By mid-May, virtually all darkness will have vanished from our night skies; while the sun sets in the late evening or the wee hours of the morning, it remains bright twilight until sunrise, several hours later. Nome and environs won’t see the stars at night again until early August.
Meanwhile, there’ll be new light within KNOM’s walls, too, in the months to come, as we implement a gradual switch to LED lighting in our station. LED lights, like the one pictured, fit into the housing used by standard fluorescent tube bulbs, but they’re brighter and far more energy efficient. While the initial cost for LEDs is higher, their substantially cheaper costs to operate, and exceptional longevity, make them a smart investment; we estimate that they’ll save KNOM at least $300 a month. And it’s a good time to implement them, especially as work moves forward on our studios’ renovation and expansion project.
After an initial quote of $17,000 for converting our studios to LEDs, we’ve been able to reduce our estimate to $6,500 (by doing the installation work ourselves, combined with lowered costs for the bulbs), of which we’ve raised about half so far. We ask for prayers that funding may be found to allow us to complete this project. As always, thanks for all you do to keep KNOM in bright spirits (in this case, literally)!
