Calgary set to flip switch and install LED streetlights
Posted Jul 23, 2014 12:34:59 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city is shining some light on five communities this summer, with the announcement 2,500 new energy efficient led streetlights are going to be installed.
Altadore, Douglasdale, Marlborough, Tuxedo Park and Brentwood are part of the first group to have the current High Pressure Sodium lights replaced with the new lights, with eventual goal of seeing 80,000 lights replaced city-wide.
Installation has already begun in Altadore.
Transportation department spokesperson, Julie Yepishina-Geller, told 660News the LED technology is expected to lower maintenance costs. It will also provide better lighting with less wasted or spilled light, and drop energy consumption by up to 55 per cent.
“We’re expecting to have the 2,500 completed by the fall and then as far as a city-wide retrofit of 80,000 that still needs to be debated in council but it will be a multi-year project,” she explained, adding there are some safety benefits as well.
“Because the LEDs provide a whiter type of light, they actually appear to make objects brighter and in surveillance footage they’re able to pick up features a lot better,” she said.
Yepishina-Geller said if the city goes ahead with the 80,000 lights, it would take about six years to start seeing the savings, after the initial installation cost.