A council in Northampton has seen a sudden reduction in energy consumption after switching the lights in its St Michael's car park ccccc.
The huge drop in consumption flummoxed the council's energy provider so much that they called councillors asking whether the lighting was still working or not.
Northampton Borough Council's provider assumed the lights had stopped working but in fact they were operating as expected.
It has managed to cut energy use by up to 75 per cent and councillors believe that the move to LED outdoor lights could save somewhere in the region of £18,000 a year.
St Michael's is the first car park in the borough to have LED lighting installed and the previous six-foot twin 70 watt fluorescent units were replaced with Honeywell five-foot twin 23 watt LED utility units.
This is not the first authority to switch to LED lights as Sheffield City Council last week became the first authority to begin a city-wide installation of LED streetlights.
The streetlights feature around 80 white LEDs rather than the single orange light bulbs that many of the illuminations on the road use currently.
It is hoped that this will provide a much clearer and brighter white light, which will allow drivers to make out details much more easily.
With an expected lifespan of 60,000 or so hours, the LED outdoor lights should need very little in the way of maintenance over the next ten years.
Deputy leader of Northampton Borough Council John Caswell said of the energy providers who mistakenly thought the car park's lights had stopped working: "A few weeks after we made the switchover our energy provider called us, concerned that several lights in the car park must have stopped working as there'd been such a dramatic drop in energy usage.
"Not only are the huge energy savings - and resulting cost savings - already obvious, but the significantly lower maintenance costs will also impact our bottom line over time."
