When the Lights Go On in the City
Belmont converts its streetlights to high-tech LED fixtures.
They've made their way into our kitchen appliances, cars, airplanes, holiday decorations and now our streetlights--LED, or light emitting diodes, have been integrated in all aspects of consumer and commercial life.
In recent weeks, the City of Belmont has begun installing LED streetlight, replacing the existing high-pressure sodium vapor lights.
According to Belmont Public Works director, Afshin Oskoui, the LED Streetlight Conversion Project calls for the replacement of 238 light fixtures. "To date our contractor has replaced 192 lights. Additional fixtures are on back order and are estimated to be delivered in mid-February."
Theses new lights will provide lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved robustness, smaller size, and faster switching.
Oskoui explained that these replacement lights should provide approximately $13,500 in annual energy cost savings to the city and a reduction of CO2 emissions of 57,800 pounds per year.
In the first phase of the project, which was approved by the Belmont City Council in September 2011, lights were replaced along El Camino Real, Ralston Avenue, Alameda de las Pulgas, Shoreway Road, Island Parkway, Davis Drive and Sem Lane.
Oskoui hopes to expand the project into residential neighborhoods.
"I look forward to discussing this conversion with neighborhood groups, and am looking for other grant funds to make this conversion citywide as resources and funding allows," said Oskoui.
The initial phase of the project was funded through the federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). Target project completion is the end of February.
deon
7:22 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
it would be great to have some of the old fashioned street lights on Sixth Ave...like the ones on Oneil!!! The street is to dark and lights would be greatly appreciated!!!
Gladwyn d'Souza
7:43 am on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Thank you BPD for moving forward with LED lights. I would still like to see ground level lighting for the pedestrianized areas. You need to see where you going to put your foot. The high lights which gloom or shadow at the foot level only make sense for drive through traffic. The base should have spot lighting capability.
Drew P
8:07 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
The LED intersection on Alameda in San Carlos looks great! I haven't seen any of the replacements in Belmont yet.
Does anyone know how much less power each one uses than the old light? The numbers in the article suggest a few cents per hour, but I'd be curious to know the before/after wattages.
Joan S. Dentler
8:36 am on Friday, February 10, 2012
Thanks for your comment Drew. I'm checking with Afshin Oskoui, director of public works, to see if he has the number. Stay tuned.
Joan S. Dentler
11:53 am on Friday, February 10, 2012
Drew....here's the long, and then the short answer to your question about how much power the new bulbs use vs. the old bulbs (this is from Afshin Oskoui, public works director:
"The answer is not quite as straight forward, but here it goesJ based on our existing HPS lights illumination design; we have lights that are either on a 120 or 240 Voltage with the Wattages ranging from 85 to 348. In comparison, the new LEDs Wattages range from 36 to 149. The illumination need drives the type of replacement needed for example we have an 85 Watt light being replaced by 36 Watt LED, and also another area that same 85 Watt light is replaced with a 67 Watt LED light. Another example is changing our 348-Watt HPS with a 149-Watt LED. The dollar savings I gave you earlier takes all of this into account as an aggregate energy savings."
And here's the short version from Afshin:
"...and to simplify the answer the total energy savings is 110,388 kWh/year."
Drew P
1:50 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Neat- thanks!