6
Jul
2012
By Calvin at 16:45 GMT, 13 years ago
An international research programme has found that LED (Light-emitting diode) street lighting can generate energy savings of up to 85 percent. The ‘LightSavers’ programme involved a 2 ½ year pilot of LED lamps in 15 trials across 12 cities including New York, London, Kolkata and Sydney.
The key findings include:
- The lifespan of LED lighting trialled ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 hours, indicating a high return on investment.
- LED lighting was found to be a durable technology. The failure rate of LED products after 6,000 hours was around 1 percent, compared, for example, to around 10 percent for conventional lighting over a similar time.
- LEDs are now mature enough for scale-up in most outdoor applications.
- Surveys in Kolkata, London, Sydney and Toronto found people prefer LED lighting. Among the benefits highlighted were a greater sense of safety and improved visibility.
The programme’s full findings are given in the report, ‘Lighting the clean revolution: the rise of LED street lighting and what it means for Cities’ which is available on The Clean Revolution website or directly to this link. The report was produced by The Climate Group in partnership with lighting maker Philips.
Thanks to crime prevention specialist Michael Clare at Thames Valley Police for this news item.
