ATTACHMENT A
TO TUSSING-WILLIAMSON PETITION: LED PROJECTS
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN (114,000 pop.)
I spoke with Mike Bergren
(734-994-4918; mbergren@a2gov.org ) who
is in charge of street lighting for the city. He said Ann Arbor has contracted
to change out 1000 decorative globes (not cobraheads) in its downtown area. In
order to not leave areas dark, 50 globes are taken down every other week and
sent to Lumecon/Relume to be fitted with LEDs. Bergren thought that project
would be completed in about a year. They chose to retrofit their existing
decorative fixtures because they were quite nice costing $300 each and because
the retrofit provided a directional mirrored quality light that has proved to
be pleasing to the community.
In the non-decorative lighting area,
Ann Arbor is presently testing cobrahead lights from seven manufacturers for
general street lighting. LED bulbs ranged from 70 to 150 watts. Ann Arbor plans
to replace 250 watt High Pressure Sodium (HPS) bulbs with 90 watt cobrahead
fixtures.
Recommendation: Bergren said that several LED lights “out there” were
substandard and cautioned others to be careful when purchasing. That however,
has not prevented Ann Arbor from moving forward in requiring LEDs in new
development areas and retrofitting with LEDs as the city can afford it, after
exercising caution.
Cost: The cost of cobrahead
replacement is projected to be between $400 to $700 per fixture. The cobrahead
payback will be around 6 years. The workers compensation cost for some went
down approximately 20% in some rate classifications because workers diverted to
other tasks rather than being in a bucket truck fixing lights were decertified
from higher workers compensation rate classes. Prior to LEDs Ann Arbor had had
one fatal accident and a near fatal accident to workers in bucket trucks that
were hit by passing vehicles.
Financing:
Ann Arbor’s downtown decorative lighting was accomplished with a $630,000 grant
from its Downtown Development Authority. It is going to implement a “Lighting
Bank” to finance retrofitting with LEDs in other areas. The city will require
new development to insert LED lights and in addition, for the privilege of
interconnecting the developer will pay $2,300 per 100 watts to the city. That
money will be used to buy approximately five LED fixtures for the retrofitting
program. The decline in costs from the retrofits will also be used to cover
additional retrofits. Ann Arbor’s Municipal Energy Fund, administers that to
ensure that a portion of the savings from the retrofits is paid back to the
fund to pay for future retrofits.
Energy savings: Bergren’s
testing is revealing more energy savings for the cobraheads (70%) than the
decorative lights (50%). LEDs avoid the HPS surge during startup and pulsing.
Savings are from an adjusted flat rate per light based on an estimated 9
cents/kWh.
Satisfaction with light levels:
Ann Arbor’s decorative LED globes meet Recommended Practice (RP8) standards in
the downtown area. He said RP8 standards are set for HPS lights which produce a
yellow light. Lumens produced by HPS
lights need to be as high as the RP8 standards because HPS light drops by 30%
in a year as compared to lumens from LEDs taking 5 years to deteriorate 30%.
Also light from LEDs doesn’t deteriorate much beyond 30%, while lumens from HPS
continue to deteriorate to about 70% before being replaced.
Bergren said the RP8
needs to be adjusted for white light and for the fact that light output from
LEDs does not deteriorate as much or as fast as HPS lights. That is the
Recommended Practice for lumens from white LED light should be different from
and less than from HPS. Extensive light level readings were performed by Ann Arbor, Detroit
Edison and the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor did not just take the
manufacturer’s word for lighting levels. It installed thermal couples to
measure heat output and light meters to measure lumens. (Keeping heat output
low is critical for long life in LED bulbs.)
Bergren said he thought that the RP8
standard did not need to be met in residential neighborhoods where cobraheads
are mounted on 30 foot poles. He explained that manufacturers were producing
LEDs that would produce 80 lumens per watt during some of his testing and that
has grown to 100 lumens per watt with recent models. He said manufacturers are
shooting for 100 lumens per watt. When I asked DOE to vet the first draft of
this memo, Bruce Kinzey from the Pacific National Labs added the following
explanation to the previous sentence:
Note that these performance levels represent chip efficacy,
but the actual luminaire efficacy once these are mounted in luminaires and
operated at real-world, steady-state conditions with power supplies and etc.
are maybe 1/3 to 1/2 less than this level. Products using 100 lumen/Watt chips
are presently showing luminaire efficacies in the range of 50-70 lumen/Watt.
Also note that these higher chip performance levels correspond to products with
high color temperatures of 5000K+. Lower color temperatures have
correspondingly lower efficacies, e.g., a 4000K product might show a 20% lower
efficacy (there’s no hard and fast rule, this is just a ballpark example).
The
improvement in lighting level over the range of LEDs seems to be borne out by
DOE testing and product development as well.[1]
See below for more comment on public acceptance.
Maintenance: Since LEDs are
sealed, bugs do not collect inside them. It is assumed there will be virtually
no maintenance for the LED bulb lifetime. Ann Arbor used a spot maintenance
program with two persons in a truck changing lights when they burn out. Its
existing metal halide (MH) cobrahead bulbs had to be changed every two years.
It took a two man crew 2 hours per bulb to do that. This differed from Oakland
which had one man in a truck doing mass relamping. So the payback periods in
Oakland were different because the maintenance costs in the two cities were
different. Mr. Bergren thought most cities could not afford to do mass
relamping which changed bulbs whether or not they needed it. Mr. Kinzey from
the Pacific National Labs had a different opinion about the costs of mass
relamping. Mr. Kinzey wrote:
Actually, most locations consider group relamping to be the
most cost-effective approach because the cost of the lamp (~$10) is trivial
compared to the cost of sending a crew and truck out to perform spot replacements.
Once on location, they can typically replace several lamps per hour. Most
municipalities follow a scheduled replacement, supplemented with spot
replacement as necessary (e.g., in the case where one has burned out
prematurely).
The Oakland, CA study detailed below
gives payback figures for both spot replacement and mass relamping methods of
maintaining street lighting systems.
More Ann Arbor pictures at http://www.lumecon.com/ann_arbor.html
http://www.ledcity.org/applications/street-parking-lot-lighting.html
URL for
more info on Ann Arbor in its own words, see: http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/systems_planning/energy/Documents/LED_Summary.pdf
(which is reprinted below).
[Page 1 of 4]
ANN
ARBOR'S LED STREETLIGHT PROGRAM
SUMMARY
The City of Ann Arbor is
installing LED streetlights in order to reduce lighting costs and greenhouse
gas emissions. After successfully piloting an LED replacement for our downtown ʺglobeʺ
lights, the City received a $630,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown
Development Authority to fund retrofits for over 1,000 downtown lights. This
initial installation will save the City over $100,000 per year, reducing annual
greenhouse gas emissions by 267 tonnes CO2e. In addition, testing will continue on LED replacements
for neighborhood streetlights, with the eventual goal of replacing all of our
public lighting with LEDs. Full implementation of LEDs would cut Ann Arborʹs
public lighting energy use in half and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,200
tonnes CO2e
annually.
PROJECT
HISTORY
Funding for public lighting is
increasingly difficult as electric costs rise and available municipal funds get
tighter. In its 2005‐2006
budget, the City of Ann Arbor established a moratorium on new street lighting
to help keep costs under control. City staff was tasked with finding ways to
reduce public lighting costs. Like other cities, Ann Arbor had already replaced
all its incandescent traffic signals with LEDs (light‐emitting diodes). As with the traffic signals, LED
streetlights, if the technology was sufficiently developed, could create
significant energy and maintenance savings since LEDs reduce lighting energy
requirements by one-half or more and last five times longer than conventional
outdoor lighting technologies. In 2005, Ann Arbor committed to investigate LEDs
for outdoor public lighting purposes as part of the ICLEI Great Lakes Climate
Policy Project.
Initial research into past efforts
with LED outdoor lighting in other municipalities like Honolulu and San Diego
revealed failed efforts. These tests found that LED products had high costs and
poor light output. To assess the current LED technologies, the city invited
numerous LED manufacturers to provide test lights, which the City then
installed at its own expense to evaluate the performance. Early lighting tests
in 2006 were performed in the City Hall parking lot and showed improvement over
the older LED technologies. Over the next two years, more successful
technologies were demonstrated on city streets in the downtown area and in
neighborhoods.
Over the last two years of
testing, city staff has seen a tremendous improvement in light output and color
rendition from LED lighting manufacturers. While lighting distribution and
uniformity remain a problem for the highly directional LEDs, we have found
applications where the LED technology is ready to replace existing public
lighting today.
Tests on LED replacements for our
downtown pedestrian ʺglobeʺ lights have been very successful. This retrofit globe from
Lumecon houses LEDs on four panels that face down and out, directing the light
toward the street and away from the sky. Each fixture draws 56 watts and is
expected to last ten years, replacing fixtures that use 120 watts and only last
two years.
These
globe lights are mounted on ten-foot
poles. As a test, 25 of these LED globes, purchased with help from our Downtown
Development Authority (DDA), were installed to light one complete block in the
Ann Arbor downtown.
With five times the lifetime and
less than half the energy use, the lights have a 3.8-year payback.
We are now planning to retrofit
all of these downtown lights over the next two years. Funding for the downtown
light conversions is being provided by a $630,000 grant from the DDA. The
downtown LED project will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 267 tonnes
CO2e
and save the city over $100,000 annually. The DDA grant will be administered
through the Ann Arbor Municipal Energy Fund, which ensures that a portion of
the savings from the retrofits is paid back to the fund to pay for future
retrofits.
Meanwhile, Ann Arbor will continue
to test possible LED replacements for the remainder of our streetlights. If the
project succeeds in retrofitting all of the streetlights in Ann Arbor, the
annual greenhouse gas emissions reduction is expected to be around 2,200 tonnes
CO2e
annually. All of the test installations have signs requesting public input, and
the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. There seems
to be agreement that Ann Arborʹs LED streetlight future will indeed be
bright.
MORE
INFORMATION: BENEFITS OF LEDS
The primary benefits of LEDs are
their reduced energy consumption, longer lifetime, directionality and
controllability. The energy savings are up to 70% and the lifetime is estimated
at 5 times longer which yields the excellent payback time of 3.3 years. The ʺinstant
on ʺ and dimming ability of LEDs will offer additional energy savings
through control strategies that can brighten and dim based on time of day,
ambient light, or any other control parameters desired. Motion sensors can turn
LEDs on or off instantly, allowing lighting to be used only when needed.
Typical outdoor lighting (MH or HPS) has a restrike time of a few minutes
before they can turn on and therefore cannot be used with motion sensors. The
City of Ann Arbor is partnering with lighting control companies to explore
these new possibilities with LED lights. Finally, because LEDs emit directional
light, we have more control over what we light (streets and sidewalks) and what
we donʹt (the night sky). This makes for easier compliance with the Dark
Skies Initiative, which aims to reduce light pollution and its associated
wildlife impacts.
Our test globe LED fixtures use
half the energy of the bulbs they replace and cobrahead fixtures use 50 to 80
percent less energy than our current cobraheads. This reduces emissions of
mercury from coal power plants which leads directly to reduced CO2 emissions.
Full implementation of LED streetlights could cut Ann Arborʹs greenhouse
gas emissions by over 2,200 tonnes CO2‐
equivalent emissions.
One of the greatest advantages of
LED fixtures is their lifetime, which reduces maintenance costs. At a ten‐year lifetime (compared to two years for a metal halide
bulb), city staff will need to change far fewer bulbs, ballasts, and igniters.
In fact, maintenance savings alone are sufficient to make LED fixtures cheaper
on a lifecycle basis than conventional fixtures.
MORE
INFORMATION: LIFE-CYCLE COST ANALYSIS
Continue with existing bulbs (2 year
life)
|
|
Number |
Cost |
|
|
Bulb replacements |
5 |
$37 |
$186 |
|
Bulb labor & equip |
5 |
$211 |
1,056 |
|
Ballast (10 yr life) |
1 |
$59 |
$59 |
|
Igniter (10 yr life) |
1 |
$35 |
35 |
|
Energy cost (4,380 kWh) |
|
$325 |
|
|
|
|
|
$1,661 |
Change to LED bulb (10 year life)
|
|
Number |
Cost |
|
||
|
Bulb replacements |
1 |
$460 |
$460 |
||
|
Bulb labor & equip |
1 |
$
56 |
$
56 |
||
|
Energy cost (2,100 kWh) |
|
|
$182 |
||
|
|
|
|
$698 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
10-year Maintenance saving |
$819 |
||||
|
10-year Energy saving |
$143 |
||||
|
Total |
$962 |
||||
Each LED replacement bulb saves $962 in energy and
maintenance costs over its ten‐year lifetime. At this savings rate, the new bulb pays
for itself in 4.4 years ($423 / $96). This analysis is based on our downtown
globe lights, but initial inquiries into cobrahead fixtures suggest that the
results will be even better.
MORE
INFORMATION: TEST INSTALLATIONS
The first test fixtures that the City received and
installed in our City Hall parking lot in the summer of 2005 were unimpressive.
We got the sense that LED lighting manufacturers were not quite ready to meet
our public lighting needs. Over the
following year, however, the test fixtures we received from manufacturers
increased markedly in quality and today Ann Arbor is seriously considering
moving to LEDs for public lighting.
The second test installation
consists of a series of overhead streetlights (called ʺcobraheadsʺ
because of their shape) in a residential neighborhood. These fixtures have not
been purchased yet as the block of downtown globes have, but are instead on
loan from the manufacturers. Wattages vary from 50 to 80 watts for fixtures
that replace 250‐watt
fixtures.
Manufacturers of cobrahead replacements currently installed for testing include Holophane, IntenCity, Leotek, Lumecon, and Millenia Technologies.
Holophane cobrahead Lumecon globes Leotec cobrahead
To evaluate these fixtures, Ann Arbor
is employing a four‐part
test process, with lights being assessed on light output, heat management
(which affects lifetime), and general public input.
Light Output: The cobrahead replacements are installed on a
residential street where the spacing allows for each fixtureʹs light
output to be judged independent of adjacent fixtures but where different
fixtures can be easily compared. City staff is measuring light output and plans
are in the works for a more involved public input process to evaluate the
fixturesʹ aesthetics.
Heat Management: One of the most attractive characteristics of LEDs is
their long lifetime, but this lifetime depends directly on the fixtureʹs
operating temperature. As a result, heat management testing is vital to
identifying fixtures that achieve our goal of a ten‐year life. City staff is measuring the operating
temperature of fixtures to project the useful life of different test fixtures.
Energy Consumption: Each light is tested for electricity use in watts to
verify energy savings.
Public Input: All the test installations have signs requesting public
input, and the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive (81
of 83 responses). The 81 positive responses emphasized the lack of light
spilling out onto yards and house faces (ʺlight trespassʺ). One
negative response commented that the light was too harsh. The other negative
comment reflects a minority opinion about the purpose of public lighting,
objecting that the LED cobrahead no longer lit up their garage and yard and
that the globe LEDs were creating a ʺdark cavernʺ through the
downtown.
CONTACT
INFORMATION
City
of Ann Arbor
(734) 994‐2700
Streetlights: Mike Bergren (mbergren@a2gov.org)
Energy Office: Dave Konkle (dkonkle@a2gov.org)
Holophane
www.holophane.com
IntenCity
Lighting, Inc.
(479) 229‐0013
www.intencitylighting.com
LEDTronics
(800) 579‐4875
Leotek
(888) 806‐1188
www.leotek.com
Lumecon LLC
(877) 564‐3133
www.lumecon.com
Millenia Technologies
http://milleniatechnologies.com
MoonCell Inc. (out
of business)
(540) 429‐6155
www.mooncell.com
Relume
Technologies
(248) 969‐3800
www.relume.com
Test light public input sign
A search
for LED lighting on Ann Arbor web site also produced:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/PDFs/Materials_2008/KONKLE_SSL08.pdf
(Ann Arbor Power Point includes several types of street lights)
And
http://www.a2gov.org/search/results.aspx?k=led%20lighting
And
http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/systems_planning/energy/Pages/LEDLighting.aspx
(Summary of Ann Arbor program partially reprinted below)
Why New Lighting?
The City of
Ann Arbor paid $1.39 million—25 percent of our energy budget—on traffic
signals and streetlights last year. The cost would have been higher had the
City not begun replacing incandescent traffic signals and pedestrian crossing
signals with LEDs back in 2000. The replacements made so far are saving the
city $49,000 annually, but the bigger savings opportunities are in street
lighting, which accounts for 92 percent of that $1.39 million annual cost.
Ann Arbor is currently investigating LED street lighting in the hopes of
cutting our street lighting bill in half. … Where Are We At Now?
After
successfully piloting LED globe lights (below right) on a full block downtown,
we are going ahead with full conversion of our over 1,000 downtown
streetlights. $630,000 to fund the retrofit project is being provided by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development
Authority. Ann Arbor is
also testing several different varieties of what are called
"cobrahead" fixtures on Glendale Dr (below, left and center). To
comment on the test installations, send an email to streetlights@a2gov.org. The LED pilot program has already received considerable
recognition, winning ICLEI's first annual Climate Innovation
Invitational Award and being featured as part of a video on Ann Arbor
that aired at the 2007 International City Managers Association conference. |
WELLAND, ONTARIO, CANADA (50,000 pop.)
I spoke with David Ferguson, Manager
of Traffic and Parking Operations, (905-735-1700, ex. 2202; david.ferguson@welland.ca ) who
helped spearhead the LED lighting program in Welland, Ontario. He said his city
council is quite interested in becoming as green as possible. Welland has
replaced 47 High Pressure Sodium street lights with 47 cobrahead Lumecon
fixtures along a 2 km stretch of Fitch Street. It also tested 2 Leotec
fixtures. Welland decided to go with Lumecon because Toronto had the Leotec and
Welland wanted to get a test on something different. After the initial RFP 2
RUUD fixtures were added to the test. They also worked with CRS Electronics to
look at a King Luminaire decorative globe. Mr. Ferguson reports, “The lighting
coverage from various manufacturers is gradually improving.”
Recommendation:
Mr. Ferguson issued report TRAF-2008-09
to his council recommending that all new development contain LED lighting. The
long term plan includes the complete replacement of existing lights with LEDs.
The council accepted the recommendation and began by purchasing 50 K56-EAR LED
Decorative Streetlights at a cost of $63,000 from King Luminaire Company Inc.,
in partnership with CRS Electronics. See footnote Error! Bookmark not defined.. He writes,
“The decorative changeover is part of our Downtown Revitalization program and
the first lights will be installed on Tuesday [September 2, 2008]. Pictures of
the project can be found on our website.” Welland will receive an LED City award for its efforts.[2]
Cost: Each fixture cost about
$600 for a total cost of about $39,000 for the fixtures installed on Fitch
Street. A total change out would cost Welland about $3.5 million. At $0.08/kWh
electricity cost, if Welland did a full system changeover, Mr. Ferguson
calculates savings would be $1 million/year or a $20 million savings over the
expected 20 year life of the LEDs. This million dollar savings
projection is based on an aggressive maintenance schedule of replacing existing
bulbs at 2.5 years and ballasts at 5 years.
Energy savings: Welland is
seeing a 52% reduction in energy. It is served by a municipal utility that
generates its energy primarily with water power. He did not know whether or not
if the utility did not run water over the dam at night it could release the
water at other times in the day to provide energy during more expensive peak
times. The Fitch Street Relume luminaires use 90 watts, a significant gain on
the 175 watts used by the high-pressure sodium lamps they have replaced.
Satisfaction with light levels:
The existing HPS lights failed to meet Recommended Practice (RP8) standards.
The new lights do not meet the standards either. However, since those standards
are set for HPS lights, the RP8 needs to be adjusted for white light and for
the fact that light output from LEDs does not deteriorate as much or as fast as
HPS lights. Light level readings were performed and satisfaction surveys taken.
The surveys indicate satisfaction with the lights. Praise for the Welland LED
project was also received from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada http://www.city.welland.on.ca/Hottopics/LEDLighting.pdf
Also see http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/4/12/10
, http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/4/8/16
BATTLE CREEK, MI (53,364 pop.)
The Relume web site indicates Michelle Reen, assistant to the city manager, said:
"Battle Creek will save more than $50,000 annually in exterior lighting electric costs alone, so the conversion to LED lighting is making a significant impact on energy consumption and the city's bottom line, too.”
…
Honeywell Inc., Midwest Illumination, and Relume Technologies retrofitted Battle Creek's 1,388 existing incandescent traffic, turn, and pedestrian signals with new LED modules. Existing overhead fluorescent-lit street name signs and information kiosks were also retrofitted with LEDs to improve traffic safety and deliver energy savings. Additionally, Midwest Illumination, working with ReLume Technologies, engineered a leading edge streetscape lighting solution for 536 decorative fixtures located in the central business and Lakeview shopping districts.
"For every three decorative fixtures converted to LED we reduced the carbon emissions equal to a vehicle's output in a year," said Reen. "For our light fixtures alone, that is the equivalent of emission reductions of nearly 180 cars." http://www.lumecon.com/battle_creek_mi.html#
TORONTO, CANADA
(Leotec fixture not used by Welland) Info on Toronto’s LED program is at http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/4/7/9 and http://www.toronto.ca/taf/lightsavers.htm
“For
the City of Toronto, switching to LEDs will result in millions of dollars in
savings. Just converting the city's 160,000 streetlights to LEDs
will save approximately $6 million a year in electricity costs, in addition to
reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 18,000 tonnes.”
Prince
George, British Columbia, Canada (77,000 pop.)
A 2006 report monitoring dimming of
LEDs during hours when minimal street and pedestrian traffic could be expected
(something which can’t be accomplished with MH or HPS street lights) produced a
10% reduction in energy use. http://dmdeng.com/pdf/Prince_George_Report.pdf
A check with BC Hydro and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police did not reveal any
adverse effects caused by dimming.
BENTON HARBOR, MI (10.700 pop.)
Pictures From: http://www.lumecon.com/benton_harbor_mi.html#
I talked with Kenton McAndrew (269-927-2295; kmcandrew@abonmarche.com), an
engineer with the consulting firm that specified LED lighting for the city.
They are in the process of installing 46 LED black aluminum pedestal lights
from Lumecon in the Benton Harbor Arts District. Twenty-three are presently
installed.
Recommendation: McAndrew likes LEDs well enough to have participated in the
decision Benton Harbor made in going to 100% entire-city LEDs retrofit over an
estimated 10 years.
Cost: McAndrew thought
maintenance costs would be less and that it would be harder to shoot out LEDs
because of the points of light produced in the globe.
Financing: It took Benton
Harbor two years to obtain financing for the pedestal lights in its Arts
District. Financing came from a Department of Transportation Enhancement Grant.
Energy savings: On September
2, 2008, Mr. McAndrew said, “We expect to save up to 40% on energy costs.
Satisfaction with light levels:
McAndrew said he was opposed to the LEDs at first, but he has ended out liking
them more as the project has progressed. People liked them better than he
expected. This is partially because neighbors in the area where they are
installed like the lights because the light shines down and does not bleed over
to the night sky and their windows above the second story.
OAKLAND, CA (397,000 pop.)
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and the Department of Energy (DOE) recently studied street lighting in Oakland, California http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/PDFs/EmergingTechReport-LEDStreetLighting.pdf . It updated the report to the third phase in November 2008 http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/PDFs/gateway_oakland-phase3.pdf
On August 5, 2008, this LEDway replaced
This BETA LED:
Cost: Phase 3 installed costs for
LEDway new construction was estimated to be $400 per unit. “The simple payback periods in this particular case
study ranged from 5 years in a new construction scenario with $20 annual Spot
Replacement maintenance savings per luminaire, to 14 years in a retrofit
scenario with $11 annual Group Replacement maintenance savings.” This cut the
installed cost, payback period, and energy use by more than 50% in one year
over the BETA LED. They “are expected to last at least 23 years, or four
times longer than traditional high-pressure sodium lamps,” company president
Alan Ruud said. http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=780210
Also the cost of electricity was not trended upward over the alleged payback period. That would have the effect of stating payback periods that are too long. Thus, the payback period for new construction that would be relamped on a group basis would be shortened by about 8 months if electricity prices go up by 3%/year. For a retrofit application, that time would be shortened by as much as 3 years depending on the group or individual relamping methods used and whether electricity prices rise 1 to 6% each year.
In phase 1 & 2, Oakland’s existing HPS cobraheads were replaced on a longer time schedule than the two year schedule used in replacing Ann Arbor’s MH decorative globes. See discussion in Ann Arbor section.
Energy savings: The LEDs drew an average of 58 watts or 52% less than the 121 watts of the baseline new HPS lights—an annual energy savings of 264 kWh/year per fixture.
Satisfaction with light levels: Phase 3 light levels were the same as phase 2. During phase 2, of the residents surveyed 17 of the 20 who noticed the new lighting either liked the new lights better (14) or had no preference (3). Pictures of the phase 2 lights are below. Without making a specific accusation, Eric Srandberg of the Seattle Lighting Labs indicated that pictures can be doctored or may not show what you would normally see. Someone other than me will have to determine whether either RUUD, DOE, PG&E or the Northwest National Laboratory had a motive to misrepresent the lighting seen in the pictures.
Oakland HPS Oakland LED Oakland
both
Oakland HPS Oakland LED
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
In late July 2008 Anchorage, Alaska mayor Mark Begich (now Senator) announced his city had approved an eventual retrofit of 16,000 municipal roadway lights with high-efficiency LED fixtures. 4,000 is in the first phase. The $2.2 million LED purchase will involve one quarter of the street lights in the city and save $360,000 a year in energy costs. Half of the 16,000 HPS bulbs will replaced burnt out ones every two and one half years. Installing the $500 LED fixtures will eliminate a $100,000/year labor cost to replace the HPS bulbs.
The Anchorage Daily News reported,
The quality of light is different too. A controlled survey by the mayor's office last winter involving 50 Anchorage residents in one group and 40 lighting experts in another found that both groups preferred the whiter, full-spectrum LED lighting to the orangish hue of the old street lamps.
Examining a test area in South Anchorage, women said they felt safer on the streets with the white lights, and police said the new lamps made night objects easier to see and the colors more realistic.
"The police are really excited because they'll be able to I.D. cars now," [Anchorage lighting program manager Michael] Barber said. "They can see what color jacket people are really wearing -- rather than blue looking like some sort of beige." [Clarification added.]
…
Other cities in Alaska considering LED street lamps include Cordova, Soldotna and Fairbanks. Fairbanks could reap even greater savings than Anchorage does, Barber said, since the diesel-generated power there is so expensive to produce.
"They could save more than $500,000 a year, and it would pay for itself in three years," he said.
If the LED street lamps prove popular in Anchorage, a Phase II is waiting in the wings that would convert another 4,000 city-maintained street lights. Those would include the 400-watt street lamps along some of the city's "arterial" roadways (streets where the speed limit is 45 mph) as well as lights along the city's ski and bike trails.
See http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/504410.html , http://cleantechnica.com/2008/07/30/anchorage-alaska-to-install-16000-led-streetlights/ , and http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/anchorage-joins-led-city-initiative/story.aspx?guid=%7B60CC8DAE-D1B2-4158-951B-BEEBF5C81B7E%7D&dist=hppr
Color Comparison LED vs. HPS
In this photo of an LED streetlight test in Anchorage, note
the alternating sets of LED street lights (white light) and high-pressure sodium
lights (orange light). Although these do not appear to be dimmed, LEDs can be
dimmed without damage to the grid or security when reflection from the snow
reduces the need for light intensity. http://www.ledcity.org/applications/street-parking-lot-lighting.html
The savings in Alaska will be larger than in other parts of the country because of different energy costs and lighting needs.
Raleigh, NC (380,173 pop.)
The following text is from http://www.ledcity.org/applications/garage-lighting.html
:
The first LED City installation, completed in February 2007, is in the city municipal parking garage in downtown Raleigh, NC. The 141 light fixtures on level three of the garage were converted from high-pressure sodium (HPS) fixtures to LED lighting fixtures supplied by Lighting Science Group Corporation. This conversion reduced the electricity consumption of the lights on level three by 40%, as measured by Progress Energy, the local electric utility.
In addition, the light quality was greatly improved, as shown in the photos below. Based on a random survey of garage customers, conducted by Mindwave Research, user’s opinions of the light quality improved by 100%. Moreover, the number of survey respondents who perceived the garage as "very safe" increased by 76% with the new LED lighting.
|
Raleigh municipal
parking garage |
|
|
|
|
LED fixtures supplied
by Lighting Science Group Corporation, www.lsgc.com
TORRACA, ITALY (1200 pop.)
In the fall of 2007, Torraca, Italy replaced
all of its municipal lights with LEDs. It is reporting 75% energy savings over
traditional street lighting solutions. http://www.ledcity.org/press-room/Torraca-joins-led-city.html
NEW JERSEY & OTHER CITIES
PSE&G Partners With Four Cities to Test New Energy Efficient
Street Lighting
http://uaelp.pennnet.com/display_article/336309/34/ARTCL/none/none/1/Renewables-News-Briefs/
Working
with its municipal and county customers to explore energy efficiencies for New
Jersey cities, PSE&G has begun testing new technologies in street lighting.
The company is partnering with New Jersey cities and Essex County in a test
installation of new Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps for use on city and county
roadways.
PSE&G will be performing multiple tests during the next
six to 12 months to determine reliability, light output, light quality, and
energy consumption. The municipalities are being asked to monitor their
experience with the new type of lighting from a pedestrian perspective and to
provide feedback to PSE&G regarding their satisfaction with the quality of
the light.
LEDs are considered green alternatives because of their
extremely low hazardous materials content and the fact that reducing energy
consumption significantly will reduce the need for electric generation that
produces carbon dioxide into the environment.
LED technologies in street lighting are expected to reduce
energy consumption by up to 70 percent while providing an equal or better
illumination, and they have a potential life expectancy of three to four times
that of the current high intensity discharge sources like high pressure sodium
and metal halide.
Several other cities have begun testing LEDs. They include
Seattle, WA (discussed above in areas other than Attachment A) Pittsburg, PA;
Albuquerque, NM; Fairbanks, Cordova, and Soldotna, Alaska; and Sacramento,
Folsom and Mill Valley, CA.
http://www.marinij.com/editorial/ci_10173946
LED CITY INITIATIVE:
This organization was formed by a
light manufacturer in February 2007 to promote LED street lighting. It now has
several city members including a city in Italy and one in China. http://www.ledcity.org/
US Cities
involved in this initiative that have not been discussed above are Raleigh, NC http://www.ledcity.org/press-room/raleigh-nc-first-led-city.html
and Austin, TX http://www.ledcity.org/press-room/austin-joins-led-city.html
Not all cities are members of this group apparently because they have installed
other than the CREE manufacturer’s products.[3]
ATTACHMENT B:
TESTING FACILITIES OF LED LIGHTS:
NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORIES:
I read several pages of the
Northwest National Laboratories web site on standardization of testing for LEDs
and obtained the one in-house test it had performed on street lights to date
and the test it performed in Oakland, CA. The URL to this DOE site is http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/ The DOE
“Caliper” testing program is ramping up and should have more data available
soon. http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/webcast-caliper.html
. Part of the challenge in testing these fixtures is that the technology
is moving so fast that by the time tests are complete, better products are on
the market. The six rounds of LED testing produced only two tests for outdoor
street lighting even though there are more products on the market than that.
The round 5 test benchmarked metal halide (rather than a LED luminaire). They
are below.
DOE
testing:
|
Outdoor
Streetlight |
DOE CALiPER TEST ID |
Total Power (watts) |
Output (initial lumens) |
Efficacy (lm/W) |
CCT |
CRI |
|
Round 4
LED |
07-63 |
170 |
6294 |
37 |
5223 |
75 |
|
Round 5
Metal Halide |
08-09-02 |
77.3 |
4013 |
51.9 |
|
|
|
Outdoor
Parking |
DOE CALiPER TEST ID |
Manufacturer Published Efficacy |
Efficiency (lm/watt) |
Output (lumens) |
Efficacy
(lm/W) |
CCT (K) |
CRI |
|
Round 3 LED |
07-63 |
55 lm/W |
54 |
6272 |
37 |
5948 |
76 |
Energy Star Criteria: have been finalized for LED street
lighting and were be published in September of 2008. More in formation on that
is available at http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/caliper_search.html
A presentation on state
of the LED art along with other topics presented at a recent DOE workshop
are at http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/materials_2008.html
DOE presently has a host Gateway
Demonstration site program going that it is encouraging folks to apply for.
http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/caliper_search.html
Utilities and energy efficiency organizations may also apply at this URL http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/caliper_search.html.
Future DOE Reports: One can sign up to receive
information on future reports at http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/registration/registration.aspx
LIGHTING DESIGN LABS:
This testing group is sponsored by Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, a
group of 131 utilities and additional regulators and public officials including
the Montana Public Service Commission and Montana Governor’s Office
The
URL for Lighting design labs in Seattle is http://www.lightingdesignlab.com/index.html
In April 2008 I talked to Eric Strandberg (206-325-9711, ex. 28; email eric@lightingdesignlab.com ) He
was not generally impressed with most of the LED street lights he had seen. The
lab apparently has had some manufacturers submit some LED street lights for
testing. The lab is not contracting with DOE to do tests and is not a certified
CALiPER testing lab. To be prequalified as an LED testing lab, Seattle labs
would have to qualify under the following criterion http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl/PDFs/SSLTesting-OpenPre-QualFinal.pdf
. Strandberg acknowledges that his 25’x40’x15’ testing facility generally used
for testing indoor lighting is not an apples to apples test for outdoor
lighting. At present, this lab does not intend to follow the CALIPER testing
protocol being promulgated by DOE. You can view it at http://www.lightingdesignlab.com/mockup/index.html
Standberg is more impressed with some LED airport lighting applications.