L.A. Goes LED for Street Lights
This summer, Los Angeles will switch 140,000 traditional street lights to light emitting diodes (LEDs) in an effort to save energy and money for the city.
Soon, LED lights like this will light L.A.'s famous streets. Photo: Organiclightsculptures.com
The LEDs will replace incandescent bulbs, which will be fazed out over the next five years. Former President Bill Clinton applauded the initiative, claiming that if all major cities follow suit, it could eliminate the need for multiple power plants.
“This [Los Angeles] is the best place in the world – in the U.S. at least – to lead this,” Clinton said, citing the city’s ongoing environmental efforts. “This is like taking 6,000 cars off the road.”
The project is expected to save $10 million annually, but it was not released how much the installation will cost. While LEDs are more energy-efficient than incandescents and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), they cost as much as three times more per bulb. Generally, they are more commonly reserved for permanently lit fixtures, such as “EXIT” signs.
Part of the money from President Obama’s economic stimulus package will fund similar efforts in other cities. There’s no word yet on which other cities will be developing similar programs.
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Trey Granger
posted on February 20th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Update: the project is expected to cost $57 million and will be paid off over seven years.
Scott
posted on February 22nd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Trey,
Who and how did the net savings (10 million) get calculated? thanks
Trey Granger
posted on February 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
Those numbers were released by the city of Los Angeles. I believe they were based upon how much is currently spent on lighting the city and the average savings of an LED bulb.
Joel
posted on March 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Who makes the lights?
Scott
posted on March 26th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Thanks for the the response to the calculation of savings. It seems if the savings is that great they would want to change them out in less time then five years? The net savings is calculated on the completion of the project…so the sooner they can get all the lights changed out the sooner they can get a portion of the 10 million saved annually.
I have worked on putting together projects that can self fund the entire project so that the client (city) can benifit in the savings sooner.
In this economy this is a great opportunity for the city to save on budget constraints by creating savings!