One block at a time. That's how quickly Ann Arbor is changing its downtown street lights to more energy-efficient LED lights this year.
The city's energy office recently started relamping the street lights and so far has three blocks (on Washinton Street between 5th and Ashley streets) of new LEDs in place.
"It's going to be a block here and a block there," says Andrew Brix, spokesman for the Ann Arbor Energy Office. "We're taking it one block at a time."
The city is spending $640,000 to replace the normal incandescent streetlight bulbs in more than 1,000 street lights downtown. The whole process is expected to take two years but the lights are expected to pay for themselves through maintenance and electricity savings within 3.8 years.
LED (short for light-emitting diode) lights are commonly used in traffic and tail lights. They require less than half of the energy of a normal incandescent light bulb and last eight years longer than the normal two-year lifespan of an incandescent.
The city is also running test LED streetlights near the intersection of Glendale Drive and Jackson Avenue on the city's west side. City officials hope to someday relamp all of city's streetlights with LEDs. They are also considering a change from the 4-foot fluorescent tube lights in city buildings to more energy efficient LEDs.
For now, the current replacement program for downtown streetlights will cut the city's electric bill for those lights in half and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,425 tons of CO2 annually, the equivalent of taking 400 cars off the road for a year.
Source: Andrew Brix, spokesman for the Ann Arbor Energy Office
Writer: Jon Zemke
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