Sydneysiders like to lead the way, and while Sydney City Council has encountered vocal opposition to many of its projects, when the City switches on its new LED street lighting, it will become the first city in Australia to switch to energy efficient and cost saving LED lighting.
Our city seems to be following the advice already given to homeowners by electricians in Sydney.
Stuck in the 60’s – Metal Halide Lamps
The lighting currently being replaced around the streets of Sydney is the metal halide lighting of the 1960s. These lights produce a bright, white light which, through a mercury and metal halide vapour, an electric arc is passed.
Metal halides are energy wasters in both electricity and maintenance terms. Apart from their high electricity cost, they need to be replaced every 2-3 years. Replacement isn’t just a matter of man power either – it requires a cherry picker and traffic control. Don’t Sydneysiders love anything that requires traffic controllers?
Newer, Brighter, Better – LED
Public lighting accounts for about a third of Sydney’s electricity use. That means the energy and cost saving benefits LED lighting offers to the city, the council and the rate payers are dramatic.
The cost and power savings of LED are what makes them the light of choice for almost every electrician Sydney has working on lighting.
– Newer
Light Emitting Diode (LED) units are the latest lighting technology.
Sydney will be the first city in Australia to install LED street lighting, replacing 6,450 street lights. We will be joining the ranks of major cities like Berlin, Barcelona and San Francisco who already have LED lighting and enjoy its many benefits.
– Brighter
LED lighting offers a significant lighting advantage over the old metal halides – that is council can choose different LEDs for different areas.
Before LED lighting is installed, a design team determines what LEDs will deliver similar lighting levels to the existing metal halides. Then the design team draws out the entire system and submits a design.
One particular aspect the design team is working on is a reduction in the zebra lighting effect of bright and dark patches. Part of the lighting replacement project is designed to get good uniformity, especially on our roads.
Not brighter specifically, but LED lights allow us to change the wattage in parks to be more decorative. The current 70 watt lights will be replaced by 39-66 watt LEDs.
– Better
*Longer Lasting
*Less maintenance
*More energy efficient
*Fewer greenhouse gas emissions
Instead of changing globes every 2-3 years, LED lighting has a 5 yearly cleaning cycle and is expected to last 50,000 hours or around 11.7 years.
With LED lights Sydney stands to save approximately $800,000 per year – a saving of about 40% on current energy and maintenance expenditure. The energy saving is equivalent to 2,100 megawatts of electricity and 2,250 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
Those savings alone make LED better but there is another added advantage to LED over metal halides – they can be smart-controlled.
Smart controlled LED lighting is better, as anyone paying attention in Martin Place will know. There are 12 smart controlled lights in Martin Place already. Their lighting levels can be adjusted to meet environmental conditions.
That is the control City of Sydney engineers will have over the new street lighting. The light levels can be monitored and controlled from an office, headquarters, or a smartphone. The technology is so advanced in reporting on operating wattage, that if there is a failure, it reports on what it was and how it happened.
It is an exciting development for the City of Sydney to be embracing new lighting technology. Technology that backs our city’s commitment to the environment and to reducing waste.
It does make you think though doesn’t it? If LED is good enough for the City of Sydney council to adopt, maybe it is time to ask your electrician, Sydney homeowners, about having an LED lighting revolution of your own.