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| | Outdoor Lighting: Seattle to add LED street lights on arterial roadways | | 22 Jun 2010 | | In Outdoor Lighting news this week, Seattle plans more LED street light retrofits, Vishay announces LED panels for street lights, and Dialight helps its LED solid-state lighting (SSL) customers recycle legacy lamps and fixtures. | Seattle remains among the most aggressive US municipalities in moving to LED-based solid-state lighting (SSL) to replace legacy street lights. The city just announced a new deployment in the Belltown and Central areas. Vishay, meanwhile has new LED light panels for street lights, and Dialight helps LED customers recycle legacy lights.
Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell announced the latest LED street light project in Seattle. The deployment is scheduled for August as an expansion of the ongoing Seattle LED pilot project. The new deployment will cover arterial roadways in a four-block area of Belltown and a five-block area of the Central District.
“These are the first arterials in our city to be tested for LEDs,” said Harrell who chairs the City's Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee. “Effective streetlighting is essential to fostering safe neighborhoods and a safe nightlife environment.”
Site photos show examples of LED street lights that are already installed on Capitol Hill in Seattle compared with legacy high-pressure sodium lights. In the photos, the LEDs appear to provide significantly better lighting.
Seattle is moving forward with LEDs for several reasons including better lighting, energy efficiency, and more reliable lights. The city has said that in 2004, it experienced 32,000 street light outages. Partly due to the LED program, the backlog of lights needing repair has been cut to 1000.
Seattle City Light is in the third phase of a four-phase effort to re-lamp all 84,000 street lights in the city. Later this year, the city will begin using LED luminaires throughout its street-light replacement program.
“In terms of customer service, LED streetlights give us a consistent, energy efficient solution that will save the city money,” said Councilmember Harrell. “These two areas will provide the needed testing for arterials and address public safety concerns at the same time.”
Vishay adds LED panels for street lights
In the LED and driver segment for outdoor lighting, Vishay Intertechnology just announced the VLSL30 and VLSL31 light panels that integrate four strings of six LEDs and target applications including street lights and industrial-lighting applications. The former features cool white LEDs in the 5000K – 7000K range while the latter features warm white LEDS in the 3800K – 5000K range. The panels output 2160 lm and 1900 lm respectively.
Vishay offers an optional 56W driver module with eight channels of constant-current drive – each capable of driving six LEDs. The drivers can also be controlled by an ambient light sensor.
The new panels and driver are offered separately and as part of an LED Lighting Development Kit. The kits contain one light panel, one driver and five reflectors that support different viewing angles.
Dialight aids LED customers with recycling
Meanwhile LED lighting specialist Dialight hopes to lessen the impact for municipalities and commercial facilities that want to convert to LED lighting for outdoor spaces. The company is partnering with Veolia Environmental to offer recycling for high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, and legacy street light lamps and fixtures.
Dialight points out that many legacy lamps and fixtures include hazardous material such as mercury that must be recycled or disposed of properly. Moreover municipalities can be liable for penalties if they handle such procedures improperly.
“LEDs are a much ‘greener’ option than traditional HID and fluorescent fixtures,” said Roy Burton, Dialight’s Group Chief Executive. “By adding this recycling option, we’re able to enhance the environmental benefits changing over to LEDs and relieve our customers of the burden in figuring out how they’re going to deal with the discarded fixtures.”
Veolia Environmental is one of the largest commercial recyclers of lamps and ballasts in the world. The recycling services will be free for customers that buy Dialight LED SSL products.
| | COMMENTS | | Name: tom heymans Posted: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:06 |
Very prestigious, but I've got some remarks:
- There is no way that the replacement of the High Pressure Sodium Lamps by LED is going to be more energy-efficient. If that would be the case, I would love to see the the energy-ballance-comparisson...
- It is pure logic that a new installation has a low faillure-rate, compared to an obvious very old installation. Relamping and maintanance are a normal fact in this application of lighting.
I don't mind prestigous test-projects to investigate possibilities and opportunities, but just stay with both feet on the ground and don't just communicate in slogans ("Seattle is moving forward with LEDs for several reasons including better lighting, energy efficiency, and more reliable lights..."). | | Name: chris Posted: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:06 |
Re: tom heymans - I don't follow your logic. You seem to counter their experiences with little more than speculation about it's projected performance. How do you come to the conclusion that LED fixtures won't be more efficient than HPS? And how exactly is an energy balance going to prove your uninformed conclusion?
I also think you missed the point on new installations having a lower replace rate. HPS consumes bulbs, LED doesn't. It's a difference in technology, not age. Even so, your point is irrelevant because any reduction in replacement equates to reduced maintenance costs for the city, and less potential dangerous situations (intersection light goes out, for example).
I think you are the one that needs to get your head out of the clouds - those statements aren't slogans - they are measurable qualities that LED lighting has shown to improve. I would think a frequent reader of LEDs Magazine like yourself would know better. | | Name: ray4792 Posted: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:06 |
| For those that are skeptical about LED replacements, we can replace a 1000W metal halide lamp with a 200W LED Lamp and put as much if not more light on the ground than the old lamp which saves 800W as well as give them a 50,000 hour warranty which saves on the change out and maintenence. | | Name: ralph Posted: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:06 |
| Nice results getting rid of the HID technology. Someone might want to do a search on the results that the City of Naperville, Illinois got from using Borealis LED street lighting. I think the savings compared to the existing HID units was 57 % with no down time! | | Name: medinis Posted: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:06 |
| With 70% savings over HPS the question is why wouldn't you change them? A three year payback with 7 more years of earn time on your capital investment is a phenomenal return. Waiting 5 or more years for another 10% efficiency above that is not cost effective. The time to change out the old fixtures is now. We could be saving billions in energy in short order. | | Name: noddingham Posted: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:06 |
| Most city trials are not checking out lumen output and wattage at the same time while installed. Recently, the LED company that sets the bar for LED streetlights provided two lights for a city trial that included controls. The existing 250 Watt HPS were replaced by 150 Watt induction and what were supposedly 120 Watt LEDs. The lumens fc were measured and were as required for the project, however, the wattage measure 203 Watts. That was very shocking to the municipality and the surrounding. | | Name: pranj Posted: Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:06 |
I hope the pilot projects studies are used to actually look at which LED fixtures are trully fairing well.I have heard there is a lot of politics and choosing of energy saving is not really the deciding factor. This is not fair to the taxpayers and to the companies that are participating. The result of the pilot project should be shared with the public.
LEDS are definetly energy and cost saving but it wont be right to put LED's that are not designed to give maximum output for the lowest wattage.I have seen cities invest in LED fixtures that are real poor quality and a shame to the LED world. | | Name: tom heymans Posted: Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:06 |
| Re: to Chris: Good points, I must admid, when arguing about maintanance and outage of lamps. And I do also understand that there is a difference in technology and the consequences of the use of both HID and LED. In fact, that's one of my main principals in lighting design (use the right technology for the right reason in the right application), but AGAIN, you are just SAYING/WRITING that LED is being more preformant than the HPS-solution, as was my comment on the article as well. Just show me the statistics, photometrics, technical data, ... anything that proves you to be correct when you state these things. I don't believe just anything what is being posted and am convinced it is important to stay critical.
Re: to Ray 4792: Interesting, but same remark: I'm very much interested in how you do this, so give me the photometrics of your sollutions (the 200W LED aswel as the HID 1000W you compare it with) and I will evaluate from there, not just because you say so. | | Name: chris Posted: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:06 |
| Tom: A trivial amount of research on your part would go a long ways. Being skeptical is healthy, but going around doubting every story you read is just lazy. How about start at the site for GATEWAY demonstration projects ? These all show generally positive feedback and energy usage when comparing LED to HPS. | | Name: jillian Posted: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:07 |
Generally, a reduction in energy consumption is also accompanied with a reduction in lighting level. I believe there is something to the science of scotopic vision in these situations, which is how the light level reductions are generally justified. Unfortunately, the impact hasn't yet been quantified by science in a way that is widely accepted by the lighting industry (still waiting for the IES or some other independent committee to say so), so it's hard to say that these two things are exactly equivalent.
That said, I'm not completely down on LEDs, just think they aren't all the way there yet (i.e., 15,000 hour drivers running 50,000 boards, comparisons made using initial lumen output, no real testing of actual life under real (non-lab) conditions). There are some products out there that are suitable, unfortunately, the decision makers are being barraged by companies across the quality spectrum. | | Name: jkb001 Posted: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:07 |
| I must agree with much, (not all)of what Tom is putting forward. As one who is in the business of LED lighting, (and my thoughts are that some out there are as well), there are many more factors to be considered with LED lighting. Yes, on the surface there can be a reduction in energy consumption. It is also true in theory that the life of LED will reduce maintenance costs. There is also the additional benefit with regards to the reduction in pollution stemming from the elimination of toxins within burnt out HID lamps in landfills. But these are the "bullet points" espoused by LED salespeople. Deeper consideration must be paid to aspects such as Power Factor, Color Rendering Index, Color Temp and other critical electrical and technical aspects of the technology. I just moved to Seattle and I admit it, I am attempting to make inroads into the LED field here. I do believe in the technology, and I do feel that LED street ligthing is essentially "ready for prime-time". LED is a different type of light with its own specific characteristics, and due to the critical role street lighting plays, there is no such thing as too much data. Tom, I would be happy to provide you with technical data for your review. The worst thing that could happen is that it contains some problems which could be addressed and solved for the benefit of everyone. | | Name: led steve Posted: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:08 |
Not all LED Street Lights are created equal. There's a lot of crap out there.
A good way to check out the photometrics, independent testing info, etc. is to go to the various LED manufacturer websites and see who publishes independently tested VERIFIABLE information. Very few will post their info for all to see.
Other good questions to ask:
Which companies are at the forefront of the technology, with the most installations worldwide?
Who's got the longest and most experience with municipal LED Street Light installations?
A little surfing should give you the answers you need to make an informed decision. | | Name: focus Posted: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:09 |
| The advantages of using LED lamps are obvious. Get maintenance and replacement bulbs.
A very important factor in reducing energy consumption in terms of saving oil and gas. After all, saved fuel can be sold.
Development of 1 kW of electricity is much more expensive than the cost of consumption.
You should also remember that electricity is just not enough with today's capacity. On the construction of nuclear power plant needs billions of dollars, but they're easier to save money, getting more and good light with high color. | | Name: vernon s Posted: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:10 |
| Aside from the economic considerations, how about the human considerations? For example: Who gets to choose what color the lights should be? or more poetically: Who chooses the color of the night?
Light colored in the "daylight" portion of the spectrum at low lumens is perceived by the human eye to be like the light of a solar eclipse which has long been known in history to upset those who experience it (if even just mildly).
At least with Sodium light the eye isn't fooled into thinking anything about the source of the light--it can innately tell that the light is artificial. | | Name: barriger1 Posted: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:12 |
Our company manufacturers a new PLASMA CobraHead and High Mast Light (also High Bay, Low Bay and Wall Pack) which we feel is a better alternative to LED lighting, especially if you do not like the lights "spray" and Blue colors that LED produce. LED does have its place, but not in exterior applications. Our lights can also be DIMMED in off-peak hours if desired, and apples-to-apples, our costs are substantially lower than LED. Our 273-watt bulbs produce 23,000 lumens in a clean, White projection (we meet the California Dark Sky Initiative) and have a foot candle/lux of 60+ -- great for enhanced driver and pedestrian safety. We were just featured in Forbes Magazine on our PLASMA technology.
Brian 248 613-4541 |
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