Blog

LED About Town

Dropping in for Tea at the Grand Hotel and generally lighting up every place it visits.

 

The LED Mobile Hits the Pavement

 

 

 

 

Join Lightfoot LED in taking the 10:10 Challenge

10:10 is 115,000 people and organisation in 186 countries committed to cutting carbon usage 10% at a time. Check out their website for ideas, to donate and to join the movement.

 

 

 

Financial Times Reports on Energy Price Rise

The Financial Times reports that Southern and Scottish Energy both announced price rises, link here, adding to pressures on consumers and business to act now to reduce their consumption.   

 

Lightfoot IS Growing

We would like to welcome two new members to our staff, Victoria Lloyd and Bryan Van Namen.  Don't hesitate to contact them, if they haven't spoken to you already, about how you can see better, save money and reduce your carbon footprint with our wide range of LED lighting solutions.

 

 

New use for old bulbs... 16/02/2011

As the old incandescent bulbs are slowly phased out as a thing of the past, creative types are coming up with innovative and quirky ways to upcycle these redundant bulbs...

Check out these funky light bulb Salt and Pepper shakers via unplgged.com. Could you imagine these on your kitchen table? Any other crazy uses for old light bulbs out there?

 

 

---

 

Street light, it's the only light I know... 04/02/2011

We've seen a number of towns and cities across the globe embracing LED street lighting over the past two years as the evidence stacks in this technologies favour for being the most environmentally friendly and economical lighting option on the market.

 

 

 This recent National Geographic article suggests that street lighting accounts for upwards of 60% of municipal electricity spending in some areas. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LED streetlights could help communities save more than $750 million per year in energy costs, while also offering benefits like more uniform light distribution, begging the question- why aren't more towns turning to LED to save energy?

 

As The Times of India highlight- the primary barriers to adoption of this technology are the financial cost and a lack of knowledge. No-one really knows, on such a large scale, how long LED streetlights will last or how much maintenance they will need. 

 

The fear of unforseen issues that may be lingering around the corner are also prohibitive. Ann Arbor in Michigan replaced all of their downtown streetlights with LED in 2007, but two years later found that their energy costs had not been reduced. Because the lights were not metered, their energy consumption was being estimated on past rates by their energy supplier!

 

Issues such as these can be overcome by the publication of research and sharing of best practice by local governments who have been successful early adopters of LED streetlight roll outs. 

 

With the phase out of the 100W incandescent bulb in 2012, it is clear that people need to adapt to new ways of thinking about lighting. Governments who take the lead on this initiative now will not only have the benefit of energy savings and potential eco-kudos, but they will certainly not find themselves on the back foot when LED inevitably becomes the status quo of lighting.

 

Does your town use LED streetlighting or have you visited a town that does? What do you think of it?

 

How about these Japanese bio-LED luminous trees as potential streetlights of the future?