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I'm starting to see a handful of stories. With municipal budgets everywhere seeing constraints, you would think this would be a great short term expense to reduce annual expenses to take on. My town of 46,000 people spends about $600,000/yr on electric for street lights (according to my mayor - i didn't verify myself). If dimmable lights can save 50%-75% of that, that's a huge amount of money for a modestly sized town.
If you read the article, it's about computer controlled LED street lighting.
Since LED "replacement bulbs" have become available that do not require special fixtures, many cities have been replacing conventional bulbs with them as the old conventional ones burn out, spreading the higher initial cost over several years time, and reaping the cost benefits of longer life and lower energy costs. "Dawn to dusk" sensors have been around for a long time. The next step... the kind of individual light control being used in Eindoven... seems unlikely to be adopted quickly in the US due to the budget restraints so many cities and states are facing today.
One problem i know my dad's company (PPL) noted with LED lights is that the heat from a normal street light helps melt the ice on it, and with an LED, the ice may build up in areas like PA or other cold areas in winter time. Might create some added maintenance that didn't previously exist. Just a thought.
I'd love to see towns at least switch to LEDs, but if it makes sense, i'd hope they jump straight to these higher tech types to save even more electricity.
Interesting that the waste heat of a incandescent/halogen/sodium vapor bulb, isn't necessarily waste heat during the winter up north.
I find that the ROI for me to personally put in timers or dusk to dawn switches barely works out. I do it and have done it, just don't think I ever see that money back. Mainly because the Dusk to Dawn or timers don't last long enough. What does end up working out is replacing incandescent with CFL or LED. Now I only have one place where CFL/LED do not work and it is my only incandescent bulb left. I even have to use a rough service bulb for it to last....
I will love the day LED bulbs compare costwise to CFLs. THat is my next project, slowly replacing all CFLs with LEDs so I don't have to throw out mercury.
I'd love to see towns at least switch to LEDs, but if it makes sense, i'd hope they jump straight to these higher tech types to save even more electricity.
Another big area of savings is in reduced labor costs to replace burned out lamps due to LED's much longer life. The switchover to LEDs started first with traffic control signals, for this very reason, plus the built in "fail safe" feature that in a cluster of LEDs, several individual diodes could die of old age without losing the entire signal, and thereby signal the need for replacement in a safe way.
Another big area of savings is in reduced labor costs to replace burned out lamps due to LEDs much longer life. The switchover to LEDs started first with traffic control signals, for this very reason, plus the built in "fail safe" feature that in a cluster of LEDs, several individual diodes could die of old age without losing the entire signal, and thereby signal the need for replacement in a safe way.
You want to take on the IBEW You'll never reduce the labor cost for Utility Linemen who are responsible for maintaining street lights.....If the city does not have it's own Utility and Linemen then they are contracting outside line services typically from IBEW pole rats.....
My54Ford - It will be a phase out. It should take a long time in any major area to get the benefit of reduced need for labor to change light poles. I don't think it will be like electric meter readers. Those folks lost their job within a couple of years once the new self reporting meters started being installed.
My54Ford - It will be a phase out. It should take a long time in any major area to get the benefit of reduced need for labor to change light poles. I don't think it will be like electric meter readers. Those folks lost their job within a couple of years once the new self reporting meters started being installed.
My point is that the IBEW won't let a utility reduce the number of linemen they have regardless of the number of light bulbs on the system. As for the meter comment..We have selfreaders and we still have the same amount of people on staff as we had when we walked the line....In fact I can't think of a utility I deal with that reduced field staff in the last 10years Now many of the City staffs have been reduced but not the Utility guys.....Like me...
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You'll never reduce the labor cost for Utility Linemen who are responsible for maintaining street lights.....If the city does not have it's own Utility and Linemen then they are contracting outside line services typically from IBEW pole rats.....
Now many of the City staffs have been reduced but not the Utility guys.....Like me...
