Posted on 10/18/2007 10:01:07 AM PDT by decimon
DETROIT — How many Ann Arbor city workers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Soon, none.
Instead, they will be installing light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to replace about 1,400 street lights.
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...LED technology, which uses less than half the energy of traditional bulbs and could save the community $100,000 a year.
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..."LEDs pay for themselves in four years," said Mayor John Hieftje...
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(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They’re just trying to screw the city light bulb changers for the all might dollar. Greedy bastards. <\union>
save the community $100,000 a year.
...”LEDs pay for themselves in four years,” said Mayor
So in other words, it’s going to cost $400,000. I suspect that these LEDs will soon be stolen LEDs.
might=mighty
Big deal, most new lights are already using LED’s..
And they use way less than half the electricity...
Good move
The energy-saving aspect of using LEDs in street lights is only one reason to use them. There’s a safety aspect here, too. A street light that has several dozen LEDs instead of a single incandescent bulb will not “burn out” like the old lights do . . . instead, the individual LEDs burn out at different intervals, thereby ensuring that the light will still function even after many of them burn out.
If they send their flickering light downward rather than lighting up the sky it is a plus.
Street lights or traffic lights?
I think they are wonderful, although I may be a bit biased as I made LEDs back in the late 70’s...
Ooops. I misread this as signal lamps, not street illumination.
Let us know how this goes...
But this is street lights and not traffic lights.
Well, aside from the fact that it’s Michigan, no. The LED fixture won’t fit a standard
This really isn’t news. Down here in Texas, LED lights have been around and been retrofitted for years. It’s really a safety issue; using LED arrays in stoplights means no more burnt out lightbulbs causing accidents. Another reason is no more emergency service calls at intersections causing traffic jams at the expense of the local economy. The power savings is a secondary, though nice, effect.
I was thinking the same.
Never been in Ann Arbor but I also want to know how this goes. I'd be happy to use LEDs in my home if that is feasible.
Sounds like a city administrator is getting a kickback.
We are about to go through as big a revolution in lighting as when we went from gas to the electric bulb. With LEDs and other emerging technologies we begin to get to the low voltage/wattage arena where alternative energy sources become much more feasible. Combine that with some of the breakthroughs in photovoltaics, fuel cell and battery/super “capacitor” technology and there are some interesting things on the horizon.
The entire electric grid is going to go through a huge revolution, becoming much more distributed and decentralized and, therefore, much more flexible and survivable.
Hey! Is it cooler in here, or is that just me!
I think Ann Arbor just put us over the top, and this whole Global Warming problem has been solved! Congratulations Ann Arbor! Woo hoo!
That wouldn't be funny but would be funny. If you know what I mean.
Er, the same arguments apply to stoplights AND streetlights.
I prefer to see HID lighting for streetlights, as it’s brighter for not much more power expenditure than LEDS - but HID lights are relatively expensive. LED street lights have been showing up in the Dallas area for a few years now. They’re relatively cheap, they use 1/10th the power or so of even a sodium-vapor bulb, and they don’t burn out.
I actually recall seeing a night sky full of stars many years ago. They've basically destroyed that too.
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