Streets Across the UK Are Being Replaced with LED Lighting in A Bid to Save Energy

11More than 16,000 street lamps in North East Lincolnshire are to be replaced with LED lights.

The council said "phasing out orange sodium lamps" and using white-light LEDs would mean "clearer and cleaner light".

The authority claimed street lighting was one of its biggest costs and the move would substantially cut costs.

Work to replace 16,500 of the 19,500 lamps will start in November and is expected to take 18 months to complete.

Councillor Ray Oxby said: "The council spends £3m a year on electricity across its estate, so this project will make a significant contribution to our overall savings targets, and also a big impact on our carbon reduction targets."

Around 20,000 street lights in Worcestershire will be replaced with more energy efficient LED bulbs.

It will cost the county council £6m, but the local authority said lighting energy costs would be cut by more than 60%.

It also wants to modernise and get rid of all concrete light columns.

Councillor Alan Amos, who is responsible for highways, said the new lights would also be brighter and last longer.

The council plans to have the work done by the end of 2023.

It has already replaced 35,000 lights and the £6m would complete the switch to LEDs, it said.

Mr Amos said another benefit of the LED bulbs is that the light is more directed, reducing light pollution.

Saving energy

In 2011, the UK's Energy Saving Trust (EST), measuring the performance of more than 4,250 LED light fittings installed at 35 sites around the UK.

The authors of the report claim the technology can deliver huge energy savings, reduce costs and makes residents feel safer.

"LEDs promise to be the way forward for the whole sector," explained James Russill, EST's technical development manager, in an earlier interview with the BBC.

"There are so many benefits: they can be smaller, brighter; it is one of those rare technologies where the trial has shown it performs better than the lighting systems it is replacing but, at the same time, uses less energy."

Mr Russill said LED light bulbs are more efficient than traditional, incandescent ones because there is less energy loss through heat.

Traditional light bulbs pass electricity through a filament, which results in energy being released as both heat and light, leading to a lot of heat being wasted.

But LEDs are made from a semiconductor material, and are able to emit much more light for the same amount of electricity.

"LEDs are the most efficient light source currently available, and are increasingly used in domestic, commercial and automotive applications," said Mr Russill.

"They can last tens of thousands of hours compared to 1,000 hours for typical incandescent lamps.

"This is due to the use of solid state technology - they have no moving parts, no glass and no filament breakage."

The ongoing results of tests currently underway by the EST show that "lifetimes of more than 15 years are expected to be achieved", he added.