Energy Committee urges streetlight change

The town could save thousands of dollars by switching to LED streetlights, the town’s Energy Committee told the Springfield Select Board on Monday.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20111116/NEWS02/711169924

Published November 16, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Energy Committee urges streetlight change

By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The town could save thousands of dollars by switching to LED streetlights, the town’s Energy Committee told the Springfield Select Board on Monday.

The town has more than 480 streetlights, and replacing the old-style mercury vapor, or high-pressure sodium, would save electricity and money, John Pugh, co-chairman of the energy committee said.

The first year’s savings would be a net $26,000, town officials said.

Pugh urged the board to take an inventory of all the streetlights in town, noting that some lights were not functioning, and the town was paying for them nonetheless. He said each streetlight costs about $200 a year. He listed about 10 streetlights that were out along Clinton Street.

The town pays Central Vermont Public Service a monthly fee for each streetlight, which totals about $105,000 a year, said Town Manager Robert Forguites.

If the town switched to the LED lights, the town’s consumption of power would drop from 287,000 kilowatt hours per year to about 94,000 kilowatt hours, Forguites said.

And the reduction in rental fees would drop from $95,000 a year to $70,000, he said.

The fee pays for the electricity and the rental of the lights themselves, he said.

Pugh said has talked with Efficiency Vermont about a grant to cover some of the equipment costs.

The town would owe Central Vermont Public Service Corp. about $21,000 in equipment costs for replacing the streetlights with LED lights.

Not only that, said committee member Hallie Whitcomb, the town would be producing less light pollution.

Forguites said he had an LED streetlight installed outside his home in North Springfield so he could judge the new style light. He said it appeared it did not produce as much light, but that it was a “whiter” light.

He also said four LED streetlights had also been installed along River Street recently, in front of the old Fellows plant.

“It all sounds good, but once you change the lights, you don’t change back,” Forguites said.

Forguites said he would have CVPS install an LED streetlight near the homes of each Select Board member so they could judge the difference as well.

Pugh said both Rockingham and Hartford had recently gone through a streetlight evaluation, with Rockingham shutting off about 30 percent of its streetlights, and Hartford 40 percent, a figure Forguites was skeptical of.

”It’s a political process,” said Select Board member Michael Knoras, who said it had been more than 20 years since the streetlight situation was last reviewed.

LED lights are very “directional,” Pugh said, and unlike the mercury vapor, “they won’t light up the sky.”

Seventy percent of all the streetlights in Springfield are mercury vapor, which are the “most toxic” lights, Pugh said.