Since its first lamp posts were erected in the late 1890s, street lighting in the City of Pasadena, CA, has undergone many changes in the ensuing decades, with every new innovation in lighting. The latest technology that the city has adopted may be its most transformative.
Internationally famous for the Tournament of Roses Parade, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and the Rose Bowl, Pasadena was one of the early cities to sign onto the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Control Agreement in 2005, committing to reduce its carbon footprint dramatically by 2020. It is one of the few cities in the nation to draft and implement a Green City Action Plan.
One of the first to apply for a federal grant earmarked for energy programs that was part of the $787 billion stimulus package Congress approved in 2009, Pasadena had several “shovel-ready” projects at hand, many involving using longer-lasting, more energy-efficient LED bulbs to replace outdated metal halide (MH) street lights that waste energy and have high maintenance costs.
When the U.S. Dept. of Energy authorized up to $1,507,800 in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, LEDtronics, Inc. was one of the companies helping the Pasadena City Council in its goal to “increase conservation and sustainability” and put these funds to good use.
Early Moves Toward LED Lighting
Even before the federal stimulus grant became available, Torrance-based LEDtronics had helped the city implement several light-replacement projects. Working with the city’s Dept. of Public Works, LEDtronics supplied fifty 40 W LED acoustic-ceiling fixtures that replaced old 90 W ballasted-type fluorescent fixtures in Pasadena Central Library’s document room, with additional retrofit projects in the library’s main lobby and other common areas. Without compromising the library’s historical integrity, the projects helped the city save tens of thousands of dollars annually in energy and maintenance costs. LEDtronics also helped to customize Pasadena High School’s aging message board with 2,500 red ½ W miniature LED bulbs.
Over a span of three years, LEDtronics has also worked with the Pasadena Dept. of Public Works to install new post-top LED streetlights to replace high-wattage metal-halide bulbs—part of an ongoing capital improvement project to add, refurbish, or replace approximately 54 miles of street light systems around the city. (Shown left, post-top LED lamp next to an old metal halide lamp.)
“With our post-top LED units, the city can expect to save up to 80% in energy consumption after the replacement,” said Greg Krymer of LEDtronics. “The post-top LED lamps use only 27 W, compared to the metal-halide bulbs being replaced that consume 100 W, with an additional 30 W for their ballast.”
Rolling Out for Savings and Safety
Within months after the success of the initial 6 beta-test post-top LEDtronics units installed on residential Daisy Street in the city’s eastern district, the first major LED streetlight installation was completed in its western district. Approximately 50 of the LEDtronics LED30MH-600-TPW-002 lamps were installed in decorative globe fixtures atop 15-ft cement utility poles along the northern section of Orange Grove Boulevard, where the annual Rose Parade starts. In addition to estimated annual energy cost savings of up to 80%, the city anticipates decreased maintenance demand and a much longer lifespan — up to 50,000 hours of continuous operation, according to Krymer.
Other expected LED benefits include much greater ambient clarity for improved traffic and pedestrian safety, less light intrusion into surrounding homes and businesses, less light pollution into the night sky, and reduced carbon emissions. The LED product contains no mercury, lead, or other known disposal hazards, and LEDs come on instantly without run-up time or restrike delay.
In early 2011, as part of a general project to implement pedestrian and transportation enhancements within Pasadena’s historic 1920s Beaux-Arts Civic Center, metal-halide lights were replaced with approximately 90 LEDtronics 27 W post-top lamps along the streets surrounding the recently renovated and retrofitted City Hall building.
Subsequently, LEDtronics LED lamps were installed in newly erected fixtures or had replaced existing street lights in the city’s eastern neighborhoods, and by summer 2012, approximately 200 of the lamps had been installed around Pasadena for an estimated annual energy savings of more than 75,000 kW hr, based on 10 hours of nightly operation.
With a growing population of over 145,000 and having been recognized by Popular Science magazine as “one of the 50 greenest cities in the nation,” Pasadena is fast becoming “an environmental advocate and a leader in environmental compliance and protection,” according to its Environmental Charter. As it has done with other forward-looking cities around California, LEDtronics has become a reliable partner for progress in achieving the goals of Pasadena’s visionary 2006 Green City Action Plan.
