10.15.07
LEDs for municipal lighting
This is an interesting post, and the Raleigh NC link shows that replacing the current lights in just one level of a parking garage there with LED lights is saving over $6,000 per year in lower energy and maintenance costs.
Duke Energy Corp. and Cree Inc. have launched a project to evaluate the use of light-emitting diodes in widespread commercial purposes. Cree has installed 19 outdoor LED lights at the company’s Durham headquarters, replacing standard high-pressure sodium light fixtures.
Cree, based in Durham, N.C., makes semiconductors designed to enhance the value of LED solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance.
“We believe LED technology holds tremendous potential for reducing both energy consumption and equipment maintenance without compromising safety,” says Ted Schultz, Duke’s vice president of energy efficiency. “We believe this collaboration with Cree will further demonstrate LEDs as a viable alternative to existing commercial lighting technology.” Advanced Energy, a Raleigh-based energy nonprofit, and the Electric Power Research Institute will assist with the project. They will collect data, assure research protocols are observed and report results.
Cree also operates the LEDCity.org website, described as “an expanding community of government and industry parties working to promote and deploy LED lighting technology across the full range of municipal infrastructure” in order to save energy, protect the environment, reduce maintenance costs, improve light quality for improved visibility and safety, and save tax dollars.
The LEDCity.org website claims 22 percent of electricity in the U.S. is used for lighting, and 90 percent of the power used for a light bulb produces heat rather than light – but LEDs are over four times more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs.
They also last a lot longer and, unlike compact fluorescent bulbs, they don’t contain mercury and are considered environmentally clean.
The City of Raleigh is seeing projected savings in energy and replacement costs from its test of LED lighting in one level of a city parking garage.
If your city government isn’t looking at switching to LEDs, ask them why not.
