LED streetlights begin lighting downtown Ann Arbor

Downtown Ann Arbor is getting brighter and brighter every day ...now that city officials are in the home stretch of installing the energy-efficient LED lights.

"We're more than halfway done," says Andrew Brix, spokesman for the Ann Arbor Energy Office.

That means nearly 700 of the downtown's 1,100 streetlights have been relamped with LEDs. The remaining ones are set to be in by summer. The cost of replacing the incandescent bulbs with LEDs is pegged at $640,000. City officials expect to recoup those costs through 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 five times the normal two-year lifespan of an incandescent.

The city is also looking to start a pilot program to install LEDs in normal cobra-head streetlights in neighborhoods. The $100,000 pilot project will occur in a student neighborhood.

"It will happen this year," Brix says. "Realistically, I think late summer is when it could happen."

Source: Andrew Brix, spokesman for the Ann Arbor Energy Office
Writer: Jon Zemke

LED streetlights begin lighting downtown Ann Arbor

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