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.
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