The LED Alternative

February

4

1 comments

street-lights-1
Southend and Glasgow are two of the councils investing in modern LED lighting – instead of turning lights off.

The Echo reports about Southend:

New street lights will improve safety and save money

NEW multi-million pound low energy street lights in Southend will improve safety as well save taxpayers cash, council bosses say.

Southend Council plans to spend ?2.65million replacing all street lights in the borough with LED bulbs, which should save almost two-thirds on energy bills.

But the brighter white light the bulbs produce will also improve the quality of images produced by CCTV and make it easier for drivers to spot potential hazards on roads at night.

Tory council leader Nigel Holdcroft, who announced the planned spending as part of the coming year?s budget earlier this week, also rejected turning off street lights to save cash, as the county council is doing elsewhere in Essex….

 

Meanwhile the Guardian reports today about Glasgow:

Glasgow gets green loan to install low-energy street lights

Glasgow will be markedly less orange in the near future, and its council will be millions of pounds better off, under plans from the government’s green fund. Street lights will be replaced with low-energy LEDs so that the familiar sodium glow gives way to bright white light.

As well as saving money, it will be a boon to skywatchers in the surrounding countryside, as LED lights provide more illumination on the ground and less to the clouds. Close to 100% of the light goes downward, unlike conventional street lights which send a third of their glow into the night sky, causing light pollution.

The project is the result of a new finance deal from the government-backed green investment bank. Under the deal, councils will receive the cash needed for the replacements upfront, to be paid back over time as the savings materialise.

 

 

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  • Hockley Parish Council have recently installed their first LED street light. This is a really interesting project and it would be good to see other Parishes following suit by replacing street lights with LED ones, as and when the current ones come to the end of their lives.

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