Village OKs LED streetlights study
Trustees have OK’d a review of possible cost savings if street lights were purchased by the village.
Trustees have agreed to hire a consultant to conduct a review of possible cost savings if street lights were purchased by the village and converted to energy efficient fixtures.
Approval to move forward with the study was given during a Village Board meeting Wednesday, with officials agreeing to pay $2,336, or $8 each for a review of 292 street lights owned by Central Hudson.
“I think what’s really important about LED replacement is the opportunity not just for savings in electric use but it’s not leasing the lights from Central Hudson,” Mayor Tim Rogers said.
“On average we pay $232 per pole per year and the vast majority of that money goes toward leasing of the lights, not necessarily the electricity.”
The inventory is being done as part of regional efforts to convert streetlights to LED fixtures. Costs to communities is being reduced through an anticipated three-year $792,000 grant from the state Energy Research and Development Authority to several groups.
Under the agreement town officials will hire LightSmart Consulting LLC.
Rogers said savings could be increased by reducing the intensity of lights. He noted that a recent conversion by Central Hudson to LED lights in the village brought complaints from residents because it was too bright.
“The electric use could even be lower than what we’re anticipating,” he said. “Even the lowest wattage LEDs that are on residential streets are far and away the brightest lights on those streets.”
The project is being promoted by Mid Hudson Streetlight Consortium coordinator Pat Courtney Strong, who said municipalities can save between 45 percent to 70 percent on electric cost by converting from the sodium vapor and mercury vapor bulbs commonly used in street lights.
“They (will be) counting the street lights and then looking at the wattage and lumens so that when they are replacing them with LEDs they chose a light level that appropriate for a residential street or business plaza or a rural roadway,” she said.
“The current plan that’s being promoted by utilities is just to do an equivalent change without any thought to usage,” Strong said. “But now we know better and this sort of inventory allows us to really drill down to a light level that’s needed as opposite to just what it is at any particular location.”