LED Pendant Lamps Help Central California Town
Monday, February 27, 2012
Joining the ever-growing number of smart cities that have chosen more efficient technology to light their streets and saving money in the process, the City of Carpinteria in November 2011 completed its retrofit project of replacing all its existing city-owned high-pressure sodium (HPS) decorative street lights with energy-efficient LEDs. The lights are located on several blocks of Linden and Carpinteria Avenues in the downtown area and include lights on the Amtrak rail platform and its adjoining public parking lots.
According to the city’s calculations, each of the 199 HPS lamps at 138 watts each consumed 604.4 kWh annually—a total of 120,284 kWh and an energy cost of $15,035 (at $0.125 per kWh, 12 hours of operation each evening). With the switch to the brilliant and more directional LEDtronics 29-watt LED bulbs, the annual energy cost came down to less than $3,160—a dramatic 80 percent savings. In addition, the LED bulb life is four to five times longer than the replaced HPS bulbs, resulting in reduced maintenance costs that yield additional savings.
In addition to the $11,600 savings on its annual energy bill, this reduction in power usage by 96,000 kWh translates into a decrease of its carbon footprint by an estimated 33 tons of CO2 yearly.
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