LET THERE BE LED LIGHT
NEW STREET LAMPS AIM TO SAVE ENERGY
Five communities in Calgary will soon be lit up in a new way as the city rolls out the first phase of a street light retrofit. Street lights in Altadore, Brentwood, Douglasdale, Marlborough and Tuxedo Park will be changed from High Pressure Sodium to LED lights in an effort to reduce energy consumption and save money. The Herald’s Erica Stark shares five things to know about the project.
1. About 80,000 fixtures in the city will be replaced with LED lighting, pending council approval. The first phase of the project, which will result in 2,500 fixtures retrofitted in the five communities, will wrap up in September. Council will debate rolling out the citywide project at the next council meeting, said transportation spokeswoman Julie Yepishina-Geller. If approved, the retrofitting will take place between 2015 and 2018.
2. A citywide retrofit will cost $32 million, and is expected to save $5 million a year. That means the project has about a 61/2-year pay back, said Yepishina-Geller. “Based on retrofitting the majority of the street lights in Calgary, we’re expecting to save 55 per cent electricity consumption in street lights,” she said. The five-community phase of the retrofit will cost $1.2 million.
3. Calgary received the LED technology as part of a partnership with the City of Edmonton and shared its ParkPlus parking system in return. Edmonton has installed LED street lighting in nearly 40 communities. “We already know, based on all of their research and all that they’ve done, that LED lights are a very feasible option for us in Calgary.”
4. This will be the city’s second attempt at LED street lights. In 2011, about 40 LED lights were installed in Brentwood. At the time, the city decided it didn’t make sense to pursue a larger trial, said Yepishina-Geller. Three years later, that’s changed. “We feel that because technology is changing so quickly, and LEDs have become quite affordable in the last couple of years, now is the time to change over to LEDs to further our cost savings,” Yepishina-Geller said.
5. LEDs aren’t brighter, but they shine differently. The city’s HPS lighting casts a warm, orange-like glow, compared to the whiter, cooler light of the LEDs. “People are going to notice a difference for sure,” said YepishinaGeller, adding that it’s possible to dim the LED if it’s too bright. The city also hopes to hear feedback from residents in the five communities about the new lights. “It might seem like a shocking change at first,” she said.