Cities Save Money With Lighting Controller

By Author: Brad Hingerson
Total Articles: 23
Comment this article

Municipalities with street lights now have an option to keep the streetlights on all night because they can save up to 25% on energy by using the Volt Miser Lighting Controller. This lighting controller reduces energy the voltage to the main distribution panel for the street lights. Volt Miser has been used in hundreds of applications including: grocery stores, retailers and warehouses. Since the economic crises have reduced the amount of money many municipalities have, the Volt Miser is an excellent option since there is no need to change the street lights.

The system saves 25% and the cities can still keep the street lights on. By using this lighting controller, the city can still keep it streets safe because many residents do complain when the streetlights are shut off or removed.

Some cities have been looking at the option of replacing their HID lights with LED lamps. However, although LED’s do not use much energy, they also do not give much light and they are very expensive. For example. The Volt Miser Lighting Controller can reduce energy usage to up 400 street lights in a zone and the installed cost is ...
... only $9,500 US. Most payback is between 1 to 2 years. The Volt Miser comes in sizes from 15 KVA to 150 KVA and is available in European, American and Canadian voltages.

The lighting controller has been sold for the past 20 years and has many satisfied customers.

Shown below is an article from Sea Coast Online that shows the plight of many cities when it comes to paying for street lights.

NORTH HAMPTON — Town Administrator Steve Fournier told members of the Municipal Budget Committee recently that sometimes it costs more to cut municipal costs than it’s worth.

He was referring to a plan presented by the North Hampton Energy Committee last August that was touted to cut the cost of lighting the town’s streets by 45 percent.

“The problem is that it costs a significant amount to shut (the street lights) off; to take them down,” Fournier said. “There may not be enough money (in the 2012-13 municipal operating budget passed by voters in May) to do it.”

The town administrator was responding to a suggestion from newly elected Budget Committee Chairman Rick Stanton that the street lights issue be re-examined as a way of reducing town expenditures during the upcoming budget year.

“The savings would be significant,” Stanton said.

Committee member Peter Phil brook presented the plan to selectmen at their Aug. 8, 2011 meeting. The proposal would not only save money, but it would establish a consistent approach to street lighting across the community, he told selectmen during the presentation.

“Some neighborhoods are lit up, some are not lit up,” Phil brook said. “It’s a consistency issue.”

The Energy Committee identified 71 street lights that it said should be removed. That is almost half of the 155 street lights in town.

Removing those lights would save the town approximately $8,600 a year. The 2010 budget reflected the cost of operating all the current street lights in town at $19,276.

In contrast, the town of Rye, which is slightly larger and has a slightly higher population, spend about $2,700 a year in street lighting costs, Phil brook said.

“They only light the area around the fire station (in that town),” he said.

Under the committee’s plan street lights would remain at major roadway intersections, curves and in areas where there are crosswalks or major pedestrian traffic. They would be removed from all other locations.

“Lights are not needed on straight-aways,” Phil brook said. “Public safety is the one and only reason to place a street light.”

The highest concentrations of unnecessary street lights are within developments located off Atlantic Avenue, Post Road and Lafayette Road, as well as along Ocean Road and Woodland Road, the report indicated.

Resident Dick Willmar, who was present at the August meeting, said he was on the Select Board in 1996, when it tried to address this issue. He said the reason that board was unsuccessful was because of the public outcry against removing many of the lights, but that he remained a supporter of the removal.

Last year the board urged residents to read the Energy Committee plan, find out which street lights the committee felt could be removed and contact the town administrator with their comments.

During Fournier’s presentation to the Budget Committee earlier this month, he indicated that several residents had responded to that request.
“We’ve received a number of comments from property owners, and I have forwarded them to the Energy Committee for review,” the town administrator said.

The Energy Committee plan contained the option of privately funding street lights that the town had determined were not specifically necessary for public safety. If a neighborhood or property owner wanted to retain one of those lights, there would be an opportunity for them to pay its cost of operation, approximately $121 a year.

This is a guest post by Brad Hingerson and Energy Monitoring for more details please visits http://www.egenergy.com/.