LED Bulbs Bring Safety And Savings

The Windsor Police Department, the United Way and the Ford City Neighborhood Renewal program have teamed up to decrease crime and improve safety at night in the Ford City neighborhood of Windsor, ON Canada. The group is supplying LED bulbs to 832 homes in the neighborhood free of charge. Residents are being asked to install the bulbs on there front porches and leave the lights on all night. The goal of the project is to decrease crime with improved lighting and visibility. An added bonus of using LED bulbs for the project is a marked decrease in energy usage and prolonged bulb life. Residents will spend approximately $2.07 a year to run the LED bulbs an average of 8 hours a night compared to $12.72 for a 40 watt incandescent. The LED bulbs should last over 13 years at that rate.
This story shows one of the better uses of LED lighting. It also shows how governments and the private sector can work together to help the community. Even with the price of LED lighting dropping dramatically over the last 2 years, prices are still much too high to consider using them in every light in your house. Light fixtures that are used infrequently or are used only a few hours a day are not good candidates for LED bulbs. Lights that are used 5 or more hours a day, such as a porch light or landscape lighting, are much better places for LED bulbs. Thanks to CBC News for some of the information contained in this article.

LED Bulbs Slash Towns Maintenance Costs

Pekin, Ill. is upgrading the bulbs in all of the towns 178 ornamental streetlights with highly efficient and long lasting LED bulbs. The original bulbs and ballast in the ornamental light have been a drain on the cities budget due to high maintenance costs. The old bulbs and ballast have needed frequent replacement since being installed during the cities streetscape project of 2000. Upkeep of the old lights has required the city to keep replacement bulbs and ballast in stock and requires a full time maintenance crew to upkeep the lights. The new LED have an estimated lifespan of 8 to 10 years, meaning they will be virtually maintenance free for the life of the LED's. In addition, the LED lights use only about 10% of the electricity consumed by the older lights. Underwater LED boat lights from Shadow-Caster give you the same maintenance free longevity and low power consumption as Pekin's new LED streetlights. With 40,000 hours of maintenance free performance and extremely low power consumption, you'll be able to enjoy your night on the water without worrying about maintaining your lights or your battery.

Eugene Lights Up Local Business

The city of Eugene, OR is brightening up downtown by providing local business with grants designed to improve lighting and business in the city’s downtown urban renewal district. The grants are part of the cities Downtown Safety Initiative and were awarded to 13 businesses facing Broadway between Lincoln and Pearl streets, and facing Willamette Street between Sixth and 11th avenues. The grants, ranging between $1,400 to $2,700, will be used to purchase and install lighting at the businesses that will improve lighting and safety in the downtown district. Local businesses applying for the grants had to supply the city with contractor estimates on how much their lighting projects would cost. The grants were awarded by a panel consisting of members from the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, Eugene Police Department and representatives from the Eugene Water & Electric Board. The city will compensate the businesses for the purchase and instillation of the lights once the work is completed. Many of the businesses are planning on installing energy­ efficient LED lights. The LED lighting will reduce the businesses energy usage by up to 70% while eliminating maintenance costs for 10 years or more. These cost savings will directly reduce the businesses operating costs and improve there profits. Waterfront restaurants and bars can improve customer satisfaction, reduce operating costs and boost there profits by installing underwater LED lights around docks and seawalls. The LED lighting improves safety for float up customers while improving the night time water views.

The look of the old fashion street lights that line E. Main St. are a perfect fit for the quaint little town of Riverhead, N.Y.. The only problem is that the 132 incandescent bulbs in the aging lights need be replaced every 6 months and cost the town an estimated $4,900 per month in electricity. That is why the town is considering replacing the 66 poles with long lasting, energy efficient LED lights. The LED street lights are expected to last 12 years and cut the towns street lighting from $4,900 to $1000. Riverhead will also save thousands a year in reduced maintenance costs. While some LED street lighting companies may try to push there one size fits all cobra head streetlights on Riverhead, they should carefully review all of there options before purchasing new LED streetlights.There are many design options available that will let them keep the historic look of the town while still reducing there lighting bill and maintenance costs. For instance, Cooper Lighting sells a wide variety of historic looking post top LED lights.

Small Borough Saves Big With LED Lights

The taxpayers of Monaca, PA will soon be saving up to 90% on exterior lighting costs at the borough's Municipal building on Pennsylvania Ave. and at four of the borough's parks. Monaca will use $42,000 from the Power of Light grant program of Duquesne Light to replace 480 watt incandescent exterior lights with highly energy efficient 160 watt LED lights. The LED lights will be equiped with programable dimmers that will reduce there power output to 40 watts each night around midnight. They will also be equiped with sensors that will brighten the lights to full power for 15 minutes if motion is detected. Boat Launch Park, George Washington Plaza, Pumphouse Park and Veterans Memorial Park are scheduled to have the new LED exterior lights installed by the end of October. The LED lights will not only reduce the borough's lighting costs, but will also reduce maintenance costs. Exterior LED lighting has a life expectancy of over 8 years.

Casino Switches Exterior Lights To LED's

All the glitz without the waste. That's what you can expect when you drive up to the Ameristar Casino Resort Spa in St. Charles, MO. Ameristar recently replaced over 60 Post Top Lights and better then 6,000 S14 lamps with energy efficient LED lights. The company replaced 175 watt Post Top lamps with 35 watt LED lamps and 11 watt incandescent S14 lamps were replaced with 2 watt LED lights. Although upfront costs were higher, the casino expects to see a quick return on it's investment due to energy savings and reduced maintenance costs. The new lights are expected to last 50,000 hours and come with a 3 year warranty.

Solar-Powered LED Runway Lights

The Canadian Government's Innovative Clean Energy Fund is bringing solar LED airfield lights to the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation of Victoria, British Columbia. The new LED lights will illuminate the runway edge and threshold along a 4500ft runway used to move supplies, groceries, and community members to nearby towns. The new runway lights will also allow for night time medical evacuations. The nearest hospital is 5 hours away  over ruged logging roads. Before now, critically injured patients would have to wait until morning before medevac crews could arrive. The solar LED airfield lights now provide the Community and neighbouring communities of Williston Reservoir a safe runway after dusk. "It was a fast and simple solution for something that will greatly benefit the safety of the community and pilots." says Tsay Keh Dene Chief Dennis Izony. Tsay Keh Dene Nation member, Stacey Pierre, advises others communities considering deploying solar-powered airfield lights for their remote runways: "If you're in a remote community, we would highly encourage it - for the safety of the community." 

Storage Facility Slashes Lighting Cost

Tempe Storage Company has slashed lighting electricity costs at it's new South McClintock Drive self-storage facility by 87%. The company replaced 215w HPS exterior lights with 26w LED fixtures from Relumination Lighting Solutions. The energy efficient LED's reduce power usage from 8,800 to 1,144 watts per hour while improving ground lighting by 20% on average. The 12-year estimated life span of the lights will also reduced future lighting-related maintenance expenses. Annual electricity savings and reduced maintenance expenses are expected to total nearly $4,000 per year giving the upgrade a full ROI of just 30 months. Tempe Storage Company used utility rebates to pay for 20% of the lighting upgrade and is eligibility for a 100% tax deduction through The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010. Underwater LED dock lights can provide similar savings in lighting electricity costs and maintenance expenses to waterfront restaurants, bars and hotels. They also improve customer satisfaction and loyalty while providing a safer docking environment for float up patrons.
Like this post? Read more about how to save with LED Lighting.

Traverse City Installs 700 LED Lights

Traverse City, Michigan. Traverse City Light & Power is installing 705 street lights, pedestrian lights and building lights. The new LED's are replacing high-pressure sodium and other lights in downtown Traverse City. West Grandview Parkway is getting 342 LED streetlights while the farmers market area and downtown are receiving 313 LED gooseneck walkway lights. Fifty building lights were also installed on several schools in the area. In all, the project cost over $450,000. A Michigan Energy Efficiency Block Grant covered $250,000 of the cost of the lights, TCL&P paid almost $64,000 to cover the rest of the cost of the lights along with spending over $136,000 in instillation costs. The LED's are expected to save 463,618 kilowatt hours of electricity each year which will reduce CO2 output by around 706,000 pounds per year.
You can lower your own energy consumption and help reduce carbon emissions by switching from old, inefficient mercury vapor or HID underwater dock lights to much more efficient underwater LED dock lights.

NRTC To Help Electric Coops Reduce Costs

“Area lighting is a huge expense for rural electric cooperatives, both in terms of energy usage and the resources required to maintain the numerous lamps on any given distribution system,” said NRTC Vice President of Utility Solutions Ed Drew. That is why the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) is teaming with PowerSecure of Wake Forest, NC to provide PowerSecure's energy efficient and low maintenance SecureLite LED area lighting solutions to NRTC members. “SecureLite was designed with electric cooperatives in mind, and it will allow our members to reduce costs, streamline operations and help the environment—all while delivering great quality lighting.”  said Drew. SecureLite can reduce a cooperatives energy usage by 67% compared to HPS area lights and a lifespan three times that of HPS lighting. SecureLite is also Dark Sky compliant and uses dusk-to-dawn control technology to improve efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. "We’re confident that NRTC’s members will benefit from the product’s returns on investment, in terms of energy usage, maintenance costs and quality of light." said PowerSecure CEO Sidney Hinton.
The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) represents the advanced telecommunications and information technology interests of more than 1,500 rural utilities and affiliates in 48 states. Reduce your energy usage and maintenance costs by installing underwater LED dock lights at your waterfront restaurant.
PowerSecure International, Inc. is a leading provider of Energy and Smart Grid Solutions to electric utilities, and their commercial, institutional, and industrial customers.

LED Savings Stack Up For Aluminum Smelter

This story I found on the Sustainable Planet website tells about what I think is one of the best uses of LED lighting I have seen yet. After 42 years in service, the incandescent beacon lights on the chimney stack at Century Aluminum's Hawesville, Kentucky primary smelter were in need of an upgrade. The eight 1,400 watt lights, four on top and four halfway up, and eight 116 watt lights, a quarter way up and three quarters way up, were not only costing the company around $6,000 a year in electricity, maintenance costs were adding another $4,000 a year. Century found a solution to the high costs of operating and maintaining these lights in a pair of LED obstruction lights from Dialight of Suffolk, England. The Dialight L-864 LED beacons use only 20 watts of electricity and will replace the top and middle lights. The remaining lights will be replaced by Dialights L-810 Red RTO steady-burning LED's that use only 6.5 watts. The lights are FAA compliant and have a greater then 10 year life expectancy so not only will Century Aluminum save over 90% on electrical costs, they will save around $40,000 on maintenance over the lights lifetime. I think this is a great example of the potential cost savings of LED lights. Not only do you save lots of money on electricity, your maintenance costs are almost non existant for the life of the lights. Home owners, waterfront resturants and marinas can save on electricty and maintenance costs by installing underwater LED dock lights.

http://www.sustainableplant.com/2011/04/century-aluminum-cuts-maintenance-and-energy-costs-with-led-obstruction-lights/

Chinese Choose US LED's

China is said to be the leader in the development and manufacturing of LED lighting products. In spite of this assertion, one of Chinas largest automotive corporations is turning to an American company to bring LED lights to Eastern China. Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation USA, Inc., one of the top 3 automotive corporations in China engaged in the manufacturing, sales, research and development in passenger cars, commercial vehicles and components has turned to Lighting Science Group of Satellite Beach, Florida  for ultra-efficient, low cost LED infrastructure lights. SAIC-USA will serve as Lighting Science Group's exclusive agent for LED infrastructure products in China. The two companies are exploring the possibility of contracting eligible factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces to manufacture and assemble Lighting Science Group's LED infrastructure LED lights destined for Chinese consumption. "We chose Lighting Science Group as a partner because they offer the most advanced and affordable LED lighting products in the world," said Mr. Chen, President of Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation USA, Inc. "Their lighting solutions deliver the best light distribution, excellent color, optimum performance, and are ultra-efficient in meeting our country's energy, environmental and design needs."
I am glad to see LSG and SAIC-USA form this partnership. As long as the products made in the Chinese factories stay in China and Southeast Asia it will bring a much needed income stream to Lighting Science Group while it reduces shipping costs and holds down prices. It is partnerships like this one that will help establish US LED manufacturers as world leaders in LED lighting products. Shadow-Caster Marine LED's is another manufacturer of quality, US made LED lights. There line of underwater LED lights for boats has established them as the top marine LED manufacturer in the world.

Lighting Upgrade Pays For Itself

This story by Liz Shepard of thetimesherald.com tells how Port Huron, Michigan is upgrading all of the cities lights to LED's at no cost to taxpayers. The project is costing Port Huron $6.3 million, but will save $300,000 a year in energy costs along with reduced maintenance costs and replacement costs. "I think every city and county should be doing this," said Bob Clegg, city engineer. "I think this is important because energy is invisible, nobody sees it,". I'm glad to see that cities and towns are discovering the true saving potential of LED lighting. LED lighting does have a big upfront pricetag, but the cost savings pays for the lights in just a few short years. Underwater LED dock lights are the same way. They are more expensive upfront, but the savings in electricity and maintenance costs makes up the difference in price in a few years.

Port Huron Lighting Upgrade

Malls Control Costs By Going Green

This well written article by Jennifer Popovec gives suggestions on how retail center owners can greatly reduce operating costs by improving energy management. Miss Popovec gives some key facts about present day energy costs, gives forecasts about future costs and gives suggestions on the best ways owners and managers of retail centers can cut future costs. At the top of this list is reducing lighting costs by switching to LED lighting and using sophisticated lighting control systems. She gives real world examples on ways some retailers are drastically reducing lighting costs and how they did it. I would suggest this article to anyone who owners or manages any kind of commercial building. The facts presented in this article will work for any type of retail, storage or office building. Restaurants and hotels can further reduce lighting costs by switching to energy efficient underwater LED dock lights.

http://retailtrafficmag.com/management/propmgmt/center_owners_energy_management_04142011/

Color Temperature Changing LED Strips

A San Francisco Bay Area-based LED lighting company, Elemental LED, is now producing a White Balance Strip Light that allows users to choose the exact shade of white balance and brightness of their lights. The LED strip light combines with a White Balance Wall Controller to create the perfect LED lighting scheme. The system lets users choose LED lighting colors between a cool white 8000k and a warm white 2700k. The White Balance Wall Controller lets users easily fade between the different color temperatures. "Like many of our custom, in-house products, the White Balance LED Strip has been designed by Elemental LED for a high color rendering index (CRI) and high efficiency. We designed the controller to mate perfectly with the strip light for smooth fading in different applications," says Joseph Martin, Elemental LED Lead Engineer. Elemental LED is offering the White Balance LED Strip Light, Wall Controller and custom connectors in several discounted kits. To learn more about the White Balance LED Strip Light and Wall Controller visit elemental.com
Here is a way that Grocery Stores are using lights like this one to make there produce look more appealing. LED's Make Food Look Delicious

Cool LED Light Show!

Blue LED lights change to red and yellow, then dim and dance there way across a building in the Warehouse District in downtown Cleveland. The new LED lights on the Bingham Building perform a four minute light show each night at the top of the hour from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.. The lights can perform different programs for holidays and special occasions.
Thanks to Tom Livingston of NewsNet5.com for the original story.