Quote :

"Raleigh Leaders Plan Test of LED Lighting Parking Deck W/ LED Lighting Posted: Today at 4:46 p.m. Updated: Today at 7:10 p.m. Raleigh — Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker has a bright idea to help cut utility bills in the city. Raleigh leaders announced Monday that the Capital City will become the first LED city. Raleigh officials have teamed up with Cree, Inc. in Research Triangle Park to save money and help the environment. Raleigh public works employees will test and implement Cree’s Light Emitting Diode lighting components across the city. In a pilot program late last year, LED lights were installed in a parking deck downtown. Progress Energy, the city’s primary energy provider, said that the floor equipped with LED lights used more than 40 percent less energy than the standard lighting system. Also, the quality of the lighting was greatly improved, according to Progress Energy’s research. As part of the initiative, more Cree lighting components will be tested in other applications, such as street lights, architectural and accent lighting, and pedestrian and walkway lights, over the next 18 months. If significant energy savings are found, Raleigh will convert permanently to LED lighting. “We are thinking by our role of testing these products, implementing those products and then publicizing the successful tests, we can help not just our community, but communities throughout the country to a better job with energy conservation,” Meeker said. Although the LED fixtures are more expensive to install, they require less maintenance. City leaders said the lights could help make the decks safer by providing brighter lighting. They could also help the city reduce its environmental impact. “The use of LED lighting will assist in addressing our nation's energy challenges and helping Raleigh and other cities develop energy-efficient infrastructure in the future,” said Cree spokesman Greg Merritt. Meeker said he believes the city could save about $80,000 a year in parking deck utility bills. Currently, the city spends more than $4 million to power street lights, but Meeker said he hopes to find significant savings by using LED lights there as well."

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1201312/

Sounds like a good idea to me, but I'm curious as to how much the overhead will be.

2/12/2007 10:07:45 PM

sweet.

2/12/2007 10:11:51 PM

charlotte is racing there too looking at led solar lights

2/12/2007 10:23:24 PM

This is good news IMO. LEDs use very little power and almost never burn out. Seems like a good thing for the city.

2/12/2007 10:32:15 PM

I read about the first commercially availble LED light bulb.

It's 87% more efficient than an incandescent, but it costs $65 per bulb, which the article said would take 4600 hours of use to make up for in cost (192 straight days) which is normally several years of use to recoup the cost.

2/13/2007 12:02:59 AM

some of that added price is offset by the fact that with the led lighting a maintenance person won't have to change the bulbs as often

2/13/2007 12:27:52 AM

^ until people realize that they can save money by using stolen city light bulbs

2/13/2007 12:31:10 AM

raleigh and charlotte have both been using LED technology for the past 3-4 years via a Notre Dame University LED study program funded by the school and run by faculty and students. Charlotte was first, converting tons of traffic lights to LEDs, and Raleigh has done a lot as well.

and to those asking about the overhead, dont worry, this will save TONS of money in the end. the power they save, their issues regarding safety and reliability, their clarity, their longevity >>> incandescents.

Based on the research ive done in this area on my own (project specifically on LEDs), and my classwork on lights and energy specifically, I find it VERY hard to believe that it would take more than a couple years to cover the cost. And once the cost is recovered it is a HUGE money and power saver (the ONLY thing that might give it a 2year or so break even point is overheard) to the point where they would be retarded not to do it because of being afraid of a a couple year break even yield point.

youre looking at a bulb lasting over 50,000 hours compared to a bulb lasting 1000 hours not even. comparing a price of say 1dollar per industrial incandescent bulb to 65 dollars per noen per LED 'bulb' JUST over the life of the LED bulb youd have to spend 50 dollars just buying incandescents compared to 65 dollars (1 'bulb') for an LED. a difference of only 15 dollars/bulb to save hundreds to thousands of dollars in energy..as well as MAKE money selling the extra KW that werent needed to drive the LED bulb. Not including maintenance and install costs, and the fact that, more than likely multiple incandescents would have failed earlier than 1000 hours meaning spending more than 50 dollars on simple overhead pushing it even closer to 65.

Another thing is that they said 4600 hours would take years to accrue? Do they understand that most of these lights would be going into street lights and industrial uses where the lights are on 24/7 in many cases? or 12-18 hours a day in others? this means a break even point of half a year on the areas that would most likely be utilizing the most lights.

Its insane that most cities are taking this long to even consider this vastly superior option.

[Edited on February 13, 2007 at 12:36 AM. Reason : ]

2/13/2007 12:34:03 AM

yea im not saying it's a bad idea, just that its going to cost a fucking arm and a leg to buy everything INITIALLY, and you KNOW they aren't going to cut our fucking taxes when the power bills drop like crazy in a year or two

2/13/2007 12:42:51 AM

oh i know you werent sorry if it sounded like i was calling you out or something

2/13/2007 12:43:57 AM

nah it's cool, very informative actually, I always wondered how well they would perform in industrial lighting situations. Dont led's only have like a 40-50,000 hour lifespan though?

2/13/2007 12:46:30 AM

yea its around 50,000 for a good industrial bulb/cluster but youre comparing that to around 1,000 for a regular incandescent for 10,000 for a good compact fluorescent(also a good choice tho)

2/13/2007 12:49:29 AM

i thought most of the streetlights and parking decks used pretty damn heavy duty lights though. Like street lights (and this is completely from vague memory) I thought were rated for 25,000 hours or so, and most parking deck lights were in the 10,000-15k hour range.

So, while I can definitely see the energy savings, it seems like they would only last 2-4 times as long, while being as much as 20 times more expensive

2/13/2007 12:53:25 AM

well i was thinking streetlights for incandescents. a lot of parking decks etc use halogens or sodium which do have diff qualities than LEDs.

2/13/2007 12:55:22 AM

nice to see some long-term planning

2/13/2007 1:48:21 AM

.

[Edited on February 14, 2007 at 9:53 AM. Reason : er]

2/14/2007 9:52:15 AM

as a side note this post made engadget.com.

2/14/2007 11:05:30 AM

lol i just saw that.

Hey Engadget!

2/14/2007 11:49:01 AM

Quote :

"Hey Engadget!"

2/14/2007 11:57:15 AM

hah, this thread needs porn now

2/14/2007 12:33:19 PM

Quote :

"Hey Engadget!"

[Edited on February 14, 2007 at 1:46 PM. Reason : thx SouthPaW12]

2/14/2007 1:43:47 PM

Nice, I like the look of LEDs.

2/14/2007 1:46:15 PM

Quote :

"Hey Engadget!"

wow, this has to be a first

[Edited on February 14, 2007 at 4:50 PM. Reason : .]

2/14/2007 4:49:56 PM

ill totally post some porn if it wont get me the suspenders

2/14/2007 6:32:28 PM