Enigin Update - Green Light for Savings from City's LED Traffic Signals
LANCASTER city, in the American state of Pennsylvania, have revealed that their maintenance workers used to change the incandescent bulbs in the city's traffic lights every year - but they haven’t touched them for three years and do not expect to do so for at least another seven, if not longer.
Why such a dramatic change?
Well, three years ago the city converted all its 106 traffic signals to light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures, and they have not had to change a single bulb so far.
Lancaster’s Public Works Director Charlotte Katzenmoyer doesn't expect to have to change any bulbs for at least another seven years.
"They should last even longer than that," Katzenmoyer said of the LED bulbs, which are under warranty for 10 years.
This has produced a a tremendous saving in labour costs but even bigger savings are being felt elsewhere.
Katzenmoyer explained, "Our electric has dropped to less than a fifth of what it was before the retrofit," citing an annual cost of more than $100,000 for the traffic signals falling to about $20,000.
"It's saved us a ton a money," she added.
After Lancaster’s experience another 14 county municipalities are following the city's lead by also retrofitting traffic signals to save money and electricity.
The Lancaster Transportation Authority, is overseeing the new projects to replace incandescent traffic signals with LEDs at 56 intersections, with the work is expected to begin in the next few weeks and be completed by late fall.
According to the federal Energy Department, the multifilament LED lights are expected to use 80-90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. That results in an annual savings of 10,841,882 kilowatt hours of electricity for all 56 intersections, or $1.1 million, according to PPL Electric Utilities.
The lower energy use also reduces CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by an estimated 9,116 metric tons, the Energy Department estimates.
The $250,000 costs of the project are being covered by a small portion of a $3.8 million energy-efficiency block grant the county received through the federal stimulus program last year.
Most of this grant money is being used for energy audits of public buildings and efficiency upgrades.
Enigin Distributors are already helping out many municipalities in the US and elsewhere to monitor and manage energy use and change equipment, from lighting through to motor controllers, to save energy.
Picture by haydnseek
