Street lights in Lethbridge will receive a money-saving makeover, starting in 2012.
As part of city council’s plan to save money on energy costs, the existing high pressure sodium street lights will be converted to energy-saving LED lights.
Darwin Juell, city of Lethbridge transportation manager, says the new lights will save the city about $1 million per year.
“LED’s save easily approximately 50 per cent of the power compared to the traditional HPS bulbs. Plus they also have lower maintenance costs since they last so much longer,” said Juell.
LED lights are also safer, due to a lower voltage, and cause less glare, leading to better visibility for drivers.
Juell says the plan is to have as much of the city as possible converted to LED street lights by 2014.
“Not all existing HPS bulbs would be converted over if the price of the LED is too high or not possible, but at least all of the existing cobra heads will be converted over. This mean 90-95 per cent of the city would be converted.”
The project will cost around $7.5 million and will be funded by the provincial NDCC (new deal for cities and communities) grant.