Valparaiso reaping big savings from eco-friendly LED bulbs in streetlights, traffic signals

VALPARAISO | Switching to LED lights for its streetlights and traffic signals has been a good investment for Valparaiso.

The change is expected to pay for itself in about four years. After that, the city will continue to save — even after buying a bucket truck and hiring a technician at $50 an hour to maintain the lights, said Don McGinley, director of the city's Project and Facility Management Office.

Over the past nine months, McGinley's office has monitored the savings realized by replacing the "cobra-head"-style streetlights with decorative light-emitting diode bulbs, and using LED bulbs in traffic signals.

The switch is nearly complete, and McGinley said the cost of the LEDs is about a third of what the city was paying despite needing two decorative lights to one cobra head. The savings is in the thousands of dollars annually, but an exact figure wasn't available.

The city has installed 170 decorative streetlights and had NIPSCO remove 90 cobra heads. The cobra heads use about $24.50 a month in electricity compared with $5.85 for LED lamps.

The city also has high-pressure sodium lamps on decorative poles in some areas. These are cheaper than cobra-head lights at $7.80 a month, and the city has put the double-headed lights on timers that turn half of them off at midnight. An estimate of the savings from that wasn't available.

McGinley said the technician maintains not only the decorative lamps but the electric services in the tree wells, the ground lighting for some poles and other electrical work. The cost is $50 an hour, compared with $120 an hour for a NIPSCO contractor to do the work.

The city is planning another traffic signal project in the spring that will leave only a couple of signals with old lamps. Signals are equipped with battery backups, which old-style lights drain in two hours, McGinley said. The LEDs can operate up to 24 hours, which will save money on batteries.

"LED lamping has a little more cost in capital outlay, but should balance out the expense over a period of time due to less electric use/cost than the cobra-head lighting," McGinley said. "The replacement cost of LEDs for the last couple of years has been minimal compared to high-pressure sodium lamping. LED lamping has an expected life up to 20 years, where HPS life expectancy is about five years."

Saving money isn't the only benefit of the LED lamps, he said.

"The decorative pole and LED lighting provide a better natural light, and they have underground wiring so nothing is visible in the air," he said.

"Also, there's the removal of the HPS orange glow. The streetscape is more appealing and visual without aerial wires, wood poles and cobra-head lights hanging over the street and walkways."

The LEDs are free of mercury, which is a toxic metal. Even the bad news is good where the new lights are concerned.

"NIPSCO does have new lighting rates coming out, but we anticipate with the use of LED lights there still will be savings," McGinley said. "It's just not known to what extent."