Milwaukee shines a light on LED debate

Published: November 9, 2009
Tags: BetaLED, LED, light-emitting diode, Milwaukee, Racine, Ruud Lighting Inc., streetlights, We Energies

Ruud Lighting Inc. employs more than 500 people in its Racine manufacturing facility, which produces streetlights powered by light-emitting diodes. (Photo submitted by Ruud Lighting Inc.)

By Sean Ryan
sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com

Skepticism is keeping pace with optimism over energy-efficient streetlights as some cities embrace the technology and others wonder if it will live up to expectations.

Milwaukee is testing 10 light-emitting diode lamps on a street in the Third Ward and another on the south side and is finding they burn too hot and might not produce enough light, said Bob Bryson, Milwaukee chief traffic and street-lighting engineer.

City light poles are spaced 140 feet apart, he said, so the LED lights need to cover 70 feet while illuminating the road and sidewalk, he said.

Still, Bryson said, the LED test lamps are as close as the city has come to finding energy-efficient lights that might work.

“We’ve finally found a product that we’re willing to explore,” Bryson said.
Milwaukee Alderman Michael Murphy, in a resolution introduced Friday to find ways to reduce operating costs, suggested the city install more LED streetlights. Murphy said city employees suggested the LEDs as a way to cut spending.

Racine is beyond the idea phase. It installed LED lights in three locations last year and now plans to convert 900 lamps to LED using $600,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said John Rooney, assistant city commissioner of public works.

The city plans to save $44,000 a year in electric bills because the LEDs use less power than traditional lights, he said. Given their expected 20-year life span, the lamps should pay for themselves and more, he said.

“That’s pretty good,” he said, “but you have to put it in context or perspective of what we pay utilities on.”

There are 8,000 lamps in Racine, but the city only owns about 40 percent of them, Rooney said. The city spends $262,000 to power the lights it owns and pays We Energies $760,000 annually to maintain and power the remaining lights.

Although Wisconsin communities and utilities are just now turning to LED streetlights, the technology has been in use for years in other cities, said Kevin Orth, director of sales for Racine-based BetaLED, a division of Ruud Lighting Inc. Ruud produced the lights that Racine is using.

The streetlight technology is always evolving, but it works, Orth said.

“LED is definitely mainstream,” he said. “It’s no longer a technology that is being tested or in development. It is here.”

We Energies, which owns streetlights in 300 Wisconsin municipalities, is approaching the LED technology cautiously. The utility is testing some LED lights in Sturtevant, said We Energies spokesman Brian Manthey.

The utility, he said, wants more evidence of how the lights perform in different seasons, whether they change colors in different temperatures and, depending on how bright or dim the light, how much less electricity they use.

“From a technological standpoint, it is still maturing,” Manthey said. “And remember that when you make a decision to go this route, you are making a decision for decades.”

Bryson said Milwaukee will wait to see how the lights perform in the Third Ward. A city engineer who lives on the south side block where the other LEDs were installed will use a light meter to test brightness at night and compare it with typical city lights, he said.

“Right now,” Bryson said, “we’re just interested in getting something that will work in the city.”

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