Street Lighting Companies Go Head to Head in Du Quoin

Towns like Peoria, Ill. and others all across the nation are closely watching a cutting-edge lighting experiment being conducted in one of Du Quoin's historic neighborhoods.

And, thanks to public works director Dale Spencer and Illinois EPA representative Brian Rodely, communities like ours will soon know which lighting companies “can stay” and which will be “thrown off the island.”

The goal last week was to identify more energy efficient lighting. Spencer and Rodely told members of the city council that 150 watt sodium lights now commonly used in the community are consuming more than 350 watts of energy. That is no longer acceptable from energy and environmental standpoints.

Experimental LED lighting takes some getting use to, but it is a crisp, clean and sharper light.

In a prepared statement, Spencer this week conveys the initial findings of the experiment, which is ongoing. Quoting Spencer, Du Quoin has recently undertaken the initiative to install and test street lamps using light emitting diodes (LEDS) with the encouragement of the city council and Mayor John Rednour.

Ameren IP has volunteered to supply the poles for the test and has offered to install the lamps. According to Spencer, “LED street lamps could save the city thousands of dollars every month in costs of operation. Solid-state lighting, LED technology, is the future. We are testing them on East main Street to see if they meet our lighting specifications and standards. Further, we want to know which lamps are the most practical for us. To that end, we have purchased LED street lamps from all of the companies we could find which are manufacturing LED street lamps and have installed them.”

Du Quoin, the first Green Community in Illinois, has entered into a partnership with the Illinois EPA. This partnership provides for a program designed to involve citizens visualizing the economic and environmental future of Du Quoin.One f the topics derived from the visioning process includes energy efficient operations of the city. The Illinois EPA provided the city with a summer intern to identify opportunities to implement this goal. The intern identified several strategies for the city to save energy during routine operations including retrofitting the existing high-pressure sodium (HPS) street lamps with more efficient LED fixtures. The intern determined that LED street lamps use only a fraction of the electricity and last nearly 10 times longer than the HPS lamps currently used. Beyond the cheaper operation and longer life, LED lamps require less maintenance, produce better color rendition, and reduce what's known as trespass light.

Rodely says, “A growing effort is underway to reduce the environmental impacts associated with power generation. By utilizing energy efficient lighting, we can minimize the load on power plans and reduce emissions. Additionally, LED lights potentially last longer. This will result in fewer lamp replacements, thus conserving raw material and reducing disposal costs for the city.”

The City of Du Quoin studied light level specifications, guidelines and standards this past summer. At the end of that study, the city council adopted a resolution setting forth lighting standards for the streets in Du Quoin. The city used the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America as a guideline for the standards, specifications and suggestions for development of the lighting resolution. The State of California standards were also used in the development of the lighting resolution since they were clear, concise and very close to IESA suggestions. The city's specifications call for the intersections to be lighted to a level that is the same as ten full moons. The level of one full-moonlight is one-hundredth foot-candle (o.01fc). Du Quoin's requirement is a level of one-tenth foot-candle (0.10fc) at the middle of the crosswalks in residential neighborhoods.

“The first test will be conducted to see if these lamps will be able to meet the specifications. If any of the lamps do not meet those requirements, the lamp will be disqualified,” says Spencer. “We have lamps in this study which have been excluded. The performing lamps will be analyzed for other merits: optics, electrical, mechanical, cost of operation, warranty length, initial cost, ease of installation, directional lighting and flexibility of direction, wind load, weight and energy usage. We believe that we can recapture the cost of replacing our current street lamps in about 3 1/1 years based on the savings from reduced energy and maintenance costs.”

Every manufacturing company of LED lamps was included in this study. The lamps being evaluated were from Millennia Technologies, Mooncell, Ledtronics and Leotek. Millennia and Leotek both have two lamps in the study. Websites for the companies listed above can be found at: www.millenniatechnologies.com; www.mooncell.com; www.leotek.com; and www.ledtronics. com.

On Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. levels were taken on East Main Street. Brian Rodely from the Illinois EPA oversaw this operation. The light levels measured were much higher than the city specifications require with many of the light levels measuring 15 times the standards. These light level readings were taken in the middle of the roadways, intersections and crosswalks.

Ameren IP, the local electric utility, participated in the study by allowing several HPS lamps on Main Street to be changed to LEDs. Ameren IP provided a truck and lineman on February 7, 2006 to install the lamps. During the installation, the lineman measured the current amp draw of the LPS and LED fixtures that allows us to calculate the wattage of all the lamps involved. According to the measurements taken before and after the LED installation, the HPS lamps were using 360 watts while the LED lamps used between 12 and 36 watts. Specifically, the Leotek lamps used 36 watts. Millennia Technologies tested at 24 watts, and the Mooncell lamp drew 12 watts.

On Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in the evening light levels were again taken at the exact same locations. The Leotek, Mooncell and Millennia lamps all performed well on the street. They offer a whiter light providing better color rendering capabilities. The ambiance of the street is softer and more appealing without the glare from the HPS lamps allowing the historic homes along the route to stand out with their accent lighting. There is a dramatic reduction of light pollution and trespass lighting while maintaining adequate light levels on the street.

The lighting standards of the city call for certain light levels to be met at intersections. East Main street includes one 3-way and one 4-way intersection lighted in the trial. Millennia Technologies lamps were used in these locations and deemed capable of compliance with the specifications set forth by the city, Institute of traffic Engineers, and more stringent State of California Department of Transportation Rural Roadway specifications.

The costs of operating lamps on unmetered poles are governed by the Illinois Department of Commerce. Currently the cost of renting a lamp of the size, 150 watts, on Main Street, is $13.88 per month. From this figure, the city calculated the cost of operating a LED lamp savings of $44 per year based upon the price of electricity at $0.08 per KWh. There is another major economic advantage in the maintenance savings. These LED lamps have a rated life of 12 years with little maintenance. The city believes there is a potential savings of $112 per year in the area of maintenance from each of the lamps in the study. All of the lamps offer a two-year warranty, with the exception of a five-year warranty with the Millennia Technologies lamp. The potential savings per LED street light on maintenance and electricity is $156 per year.

There are additional environmental benefits to the lamps. The LED lamps do not use any mercury or other toxins that are harmful to the environment. It is generally accepted that to produce on KWh of electricity, 1.64 pounds of carbon dioxide/greenhouse gas is released. By using these LED lamps at the rates Ameren measured, the city of Du Quoin has the potential to annually eliminate 700 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the power plant.

In summary, the economic advantage is that the payback of the initial investment of installing and operation from LED lamps is less than four years. By replacing all of the 600 street lamps in Du Quoin with LED lamps, there is a potential and anticipated savings of over $1.2 million during the next 10 years. This figure is predicted based upon steady energy rates for the next 10 years and does not all for inflation or deflation.