Street Light Costs 

Converting HPS, MH, mercury vapour, or incandescent street lights to LEDs incurs a capital cost, but this can be recouped over the lifetime of the lights. LEDs have an estimated lifetime five times longer than conventional HPS or MH lamps, and energy savings of 35% or more. These efficiencies mean that payback periods for LED street lights can currently be as low as 4.4 years (Ann Arbor, no date). Because the entire street luminaire (see below), not just the lamp, is typically replaced when converting conventional street lights to LED street lights, jurisdictions may reduce installation time and avoid warranty issues. More expensive LED street lighting systems include dimmers or motion sensors, but can dramatically decrease costs by reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs even further.

  •  Use the following to calculate Total Cost of Ownership:
  •  Price of the initial luminaire installation
  •  Replacement costs of bulbs of ballasts (for HPS and MH street lighting systems) versus any replacement LED arrays or drivers
  •  Maintenance costs (mostly labour)
  •  Electricity consumption
  • Disposal costs (including mercury recovery for HPS, metal halide or mercury vapour lamps)

Other economic benefits of LED street lamps include safety factors such as improved visibility, lower susceptibility to vandalism, and reduced likelihood of bulb outage, which can increase the potential for accidents.

Installation Costs

A significant barrier to greater use of LED street lights is their high upfront cost – especially when an existing fixture would not otherwise be replaced. Using LED street lights for new lighting projects has a much shorter payback period than do retrofit projects. Most LED retrofit projects involve replacement of the luminaire, which includes the fixture, LED array, and driver. Installers in Raleigh, North Carolina observed that “[LED] fixtures were lighter, more balanced, and easy to install” (PE 2009). Alternatively, some companies offer LED street lighting retrofit kits that can be installed without replacing the entire fixture.

However, purchasers are advised to be wary of LED retrofit products from less established manufacturers, since existing fixtures that are not designed for LED bulb use can exacerbate heating problems, leading to shorter bulb lifespan and quicker lumen depreciation. In LED street light pilot programs, costs for LED arrays vary widely according to vendors, wattage, features, and date of purchase. One newspaper conducted an internet search for LED street lights in June 2009 and reported published costs ranging from $235-1300 (Incalcaterra 2009). The prices quoted in Table 1 below do not take into account any discounts available through bulk purchases or negotiated agreements. Prices have decreased substantially since the initial release of LED street light technology, while efficacy has steadily improved. A 2008 study prepared for the US Department of Energy reported that overall the performance of LED luminaires is advancing in light output per chip at a rate of approximately 35% annually, with costs decreasing at a rate of 20% annually” (Navigant 2008).

Maintenance Savings

One of the most compelling benefits of LED street lights is their longer operational life and the reduced maintenance costs. LEDs are estimated to last a decade, although warranties for LED luminaires typically last three to ten years. Most projects assume LED lifetimes of 50,000-100,000 hours compared to 8,000-24,000 hours for HPS and metal halide street lamps.

Ann Arbor’s pilot street light program reported that “maintenance savings alone are sufficient to make LED fixtures cheaper on a lifecycle basis than conventional fixtures” (Ann Arbor, no date). Banff, Canada estimates a 93% reduction in maintenance costs (Banff 2007b).

The maintenance costs of LEDs can be reduced further if the luminaires are connected to remote monitoring systems (RMSs) (CCI 2009). The City of Los Angeles, which maintains the second largest municipal street lighting system in the US, is connecting its network of LED street lights to an RMS that tracks real-time performance data. “Equipment failures are tracked, logged and synchronised with …maintenance work orders” (CCI 2009).

Similarly, LEDs can reduce the maintenance costs of traffic signals and exit signs, since the incandescent lamps they are replacing typically last up to about 8,000 and 5,000 hours, respectively.

Energy Savings

LED street lights offer a 35-75 percent energy savings compared to HPS street lights. According to a representative of the Manassas, VA Electric Utility, an LED street light can save up to 8,400 kilo-watt hours of energy savings over its lifetime. The rep also noted that “eacew light would cut out as much greenhouse gas (CO2) as the average passenger car es in 14 months of driving” (VA 2008). The City of Los Angeles reported that from a power perspective, the LED street lights it evaluated in its pilot test “exceeded its expectations” and note that it expected the efficiency to climb as the technology improves over the next couple of years.” (LA BSL 2009c)

LED street lights are increasingly being combined with technologies that can dim their lights during dusk and dawn or shut down the lights using a timer or motion detector. These remote power management systems can significantly reduce energy consumption. LED street lights have very low power requirements, so they can be easily powered by a localized renewable energy system such as a small solar panel or wind turbine. This makes them useful in remote locations and allows them to be installed without cutting pavement, which dramatically reduces installation costs.

Because LEDs are very long-lasting, local governments can reduce the energy needed to manufacture and transport these products. They even reduce the amount of vehicle fuel that is burned- often diesel- when street lights are serviced because they require very little maintenance.

LEDs are less fragile than most conventional lamps and therefore are less susceptible to breakage due to vandalism or vibration (from, e.g., earthquakes, wind, or rain). LEDs are also safer to handle during installation because they are less likely to shatter and are not as hot as incandescent and HID bulbs. In addition, LEDs do not emit UV radiation when lit (unlike many HID street lamps).

Disposal Savings

HPS, metal halide, mercury vapour, and induction lamps, which are commonly used for commercial exterior lighting applications, contain mercury. Consequently, they typically must either be recycled to recover the mercury and other components or disposed of as hazardous waste. Either option adds to their total operational costs, whereas LEDs do not contain any hazardous substances and may be disposed of at no additional cost. Most of the pilot tests we reviewed did not include recycling/disposal costs associated with mercury-containing street lamps in their cost analysis, and there is little data available documenting lamp recycling costs to large volume purchasers such as municipalities.