The City has just completed the conversion of its older (2015 and prior) Decorative Street Lights from the manufacturer’s original Induction Halide lighting to new LED’s on Pueblo Boulevard, Wendover Boulevard and Red Garter Street.  Now all the decorative street lights around the community will be LED type fixtures providing uniformity with those lights which have been installed this year as part of the Florence Way Phase 2 and 3 projects. 

Prior to 2016 the Induction Halide lighting was the only option available for the decorative street lights which the City has been installing as part of complete streets projects since 2005.  The Induction Halide lighting not only uses more energy and thus cost more to operate but, it is more costly to maintain then the new LED version. 

The Induction Halide lighting had four components which had to all be working in order for the light to illuminate and the components had no way of being tested individually when a malfunction occurred.  Given the number of components the lights seemed to fail on a regular basis.  Thus, when a failure occurred, the repair cost to get the light back up and working could be up to $2,000 per light in addition to the several hours of labor required for the public works crew to diagnose and fix the problem.  This was very costly and inefficient.

The new LED light units are a single component and require about 10 minutes to install once the crews are at the light fixture.  The LED units run approximately $600 each so the replacement cost is significantly lower and the LED units have a lower energy use then the original Induction Halide lights.  As well, the LED unit has a normal life of 80,000 hours, so replacement costs will be dramatically reduced.

Given the new LED conversion meets energy efficiency requirements (reduced energy usage), the City will be receiving a rebate of between $6,000 and $10,000 for the project through Wells Rural Electric and Bonneville Power.  Though the rebate only covers a portion of the total project cost which is approximately $60,000, the long term maintenance cost for the lights will now be reduced significantly and the City will have lower energy costs for the systems.  So long-term, the City will gain significant savings.

Great work!