News

5 August 2010

 

LED City program gains two Pennsylvania cities and California’s Huntington Beach

Pennsylvania cities Ambler and Sunbury have joined the Cree LED City initiative, an international community of government and industry parties initiated by LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA in December 2006 to evaluate, deploy and promote LED lighting across municipal infrastructure (with the aim of to saving energy, protecting the environment, reducing maintenance costs, and providing better light quality for improved visibility and safety).

Both cities converted their street lights to LED fixtures made by Spring City Electrical Manufacturing Company, featuring Cree’s XLamp MC-E and XP-E LEDs. “We’re pleased to provide energy-efficient LED lighting engineered to bridge the gap between a city’s past and its future,” says Spring City president Alan Brink. “Our ornamental street lights allow municipalities to keep the same aesthetic appeal as traditional oil-burning lampposts while benefitting from the maintenance and energy savings associated with LEDs.”

The Borough of Ambler (15 miles north of Philadelphia) installed decorative Borough-style LED luminaires along Race Street. Each has a maximum input of 74W and delivers light comparable to a 150W high-pressure sodium lamp. Spring City projects energy savings of 60% and maintenance savings of $15 per year for each fixture (more than $100 each year overall).

Sunbury (on the bank of the Susquehanna River) recently completed its installation of 10 Washington-style LED streetlights for anticipated energy savings of 43% compared to traditional metal halide lighting. Sunbury city officials estimate that the LED lights will save $29 per fixture each year, for overall annual savings of $290.

“We welcome these cities to the LED City community and applaud Spring City for providing innovative products that help accelerate the adoption of LED lighting,” says Cree’s LED programs manager Deb Lovig. “These installations represent the continued efforts of civic leaders like those in Ambler and Sunbury to achieve sustainability goals by making the switch to high-efficiency, low-maintenance, mercury-free LEDs.”

Also, on 20 July, Huntington Beach became the second city in California to join the LED City program. The city has completed a pilot LED lighting study in the 100-year-old Main Street area (a popular location for citizens and tourists featuring shops, restaurants and other entertainment venues).

Kim Lighting Archetype LED streetlights are being installed in a bluff-top beach-side parking lot and BetaLED LEDway streetlights have been installed in the downtown taxi loading zone to improve the quality of lighting in both areas. In the parking lot, Kim Lighting’s HID-to-LED upgrade kit was used for a more sustainable alternative to complete luminaire replacement. The 140W LED lamps and ballasts replace high-pressure sodium fixtures consuming 295W that run from dusk to dawn each evening. The LED lights feature wireless controls, providing varying illumination output capabilities and allowing the city to consume over 60% less energy than the prior fixtures. The second installation, retrofitting lighting in a busy downtown taxi loading area, features three BetaLED LEDway streetlights replacing three high-pressure sodium fixtures and a wall pack, for an anticipated 32% reduction in energy consumption.

“We initially looked to LED lighting to improve the quality of light in these high traffic areas, yet the reduction in maintenance costs — coupled with longer service life and potential for field-controllable dimming — are benefits that can't be ignored,” says Aaron Klemm, Huntington Beach city energy project manager. “The success of these initial installations will help us to adopt LED technology for streets, walkways, parks and buildings across the city.”

The pilot installation was made possible by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program (part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Following the success of the Main Street project, Huntington Beach anticipates additional projects featuring LED lighting, including retrofitting its primary downtown blocks with decorative Acorn Globe-style fixtures from Sternberg Lighting featuring wireless controls (allowing city staff to create three types of light levels to suit the appropriate need). The city also plans to replace area lighting in its parks with BetaLED bi-level fixtures to help alleviate the parks' high electrical costs.

“Joining the LED City program will provide additional business case examples and best practices as Huntington Beach continues to look at various applications of LED lighting across the city,” comments Loving.

Ambler, Sunbury and Huntington Beach join existing program members Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham, NC; Ann Arbor, MI; Austin and Fairview, TX; Anchorage and Valdez, AK; Indian Wells, CA; Danville, VI; and Boston, MA in the USA; Toronto and Welland in Canada; Tianjin and Huizhou in China; Gwangju in South Korea; Tirupati in India; Torraca and Apecchio in Italy; and Bremen in Germany.

Search: Cree LEDs LED City

Visit: www.cree.com

Visit: www.ledcity.org