New glow on 16th Ave E
The results must have been pretty impressive.
In May, CHS reported that the city was testing LED lighting in nine different areas on Capitol Hill and was gathering feedback from residents about the new lights. At the time, Seattle City Light told CHS that feedback would be weighed along with measurements on the cost and efficiency of the LED bulbs.
No word on what kind of feedback the city got on the lights — we’ll ask — but on Monday, City Hall flipped the switch on a plan to transition all 40,000 Seattle streetlights to LED technology. Why the rush? The city has quickly finalized plans to take advantage of $6.1 million in grants as part of a Department of Energy-backed federal stimulus program. You can read more about how the city plans to deploy those funds in this statement from the mayor’s office.
In the statement, chair of the City Council’s energy and technology committee Bruce Harrell said, “We have tested LED streetlights in our neighborhoods and they work. With these federal funds, we can now bring energy-saving lighting to more Seattle neighborhoods and I predict many other cities will follow our lead.”
City Hall says replacing all streetlights with LEDs will take four to six years.
UPDATE 12:31 PM:
Seattle City Light’s Mike Eagan responded to our question about the feedback gathered from residents about the LED streetlights:
Generally, the responses to the LEDs at the Capitol Hill test sites were very strong and very positive, with a lot of additional praise for the city moving toward this new technology and for asking the community’s input. We are still compiling all of the individual survey responses and there’s a lot of work still to do in planning for the new funding and phased implementation
Since we were testing a number of different kinds of fixtures, it is apparent that at least one was not well liked (and that’s putting it mildly); most were seen as significantly better. I hope we will have a more comprehensive, detailed report on the survey findings to share, but I’m just not there yet.
Hooray for LEDs! =)
Now if they’d only get smart metering…..
energy efficiency is cool
I moved off Capitol Hill a couple months back, but right before I did, the city added a string of LED lights in front of my apartment on Republican. Besides the energy efficiency, they produce much “cleaner” light and look better than the old orange sodium glow.
Any idea if unnecessary leakage of light into the night sky is a consideration for selecting fixtures? This is an incredible opportunity to cut down on light pollution.
Even though the Mayor has given the go ahead, the comment period is still open. I personally found the lights to be too bright and glaring, and really strained my eyes. After talking to Mike Eagan about this, he said any comments of this nature will be considered to help them find LED’s that are easier on the eyes. Shoot an email to Mike (email below). The more comments the better!
mike.eagan@seattle.gov
If anyone’s curious, I did contact City Light and received the following assurance from Mike Eagen:
“Thank you for contacting us. Indeed, light pollution and glare were included among the first considerations for this pilot project and we’ve heard from quite a few concerned observers like yourself. Fascinating article, by the way. Thanks for sending it.”
The article I attached can be found at http://data.nextrionet.com/site/idsa/Seattle%20Article%20060
These lights are an eyesore, and they make it harder to see into shadowed areas. We’re going ahead with this before the survey results are released? Something here is not right.
This is very bad news for amateur astronomers in the area. Sodium vapor lights are preferable because they are monochromatic, that is, they emit light at a single wavelength. This makes it easy to filter out sodium vapor light in the telescope. The new lights are broad spectrum, which will be impossible to filter out.