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Councils switch to LED lighting in money-saving bid

Councils switch to LED lighting in money-saving bid

Councils and other organisations across the country are re-considering their lighting options as they attempt to cut back on energy costs, with LED bulbs emerging as one of the key money-saving options.


According to the North-West Evening Mail, South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) is set to save £21,000 this year after switching from incandescent to LED bulbs in all of its properties, and plans are now in place to extend the initiative to street lamps.


In a statement to the local cabinet committee, SLDC’s environment and sustainability chief Claire Feeney-Johnson said that the savings take into account installation and maintenance costs, and added that most people do not even notice the difference in lighting.


Staying in the north west, a spokesman for Leeds City Council has said that LED lighting may well provide the answer to the city’s soaring energy costs, after plans to cut back on the number of street lights switched on at any one time were met with fierce criticism.


In the past five years, the cost of street lighting in Leeds has risen from £5.8 million to £14.4 million, and the council is now desperately looking for ways to reduce this figure, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post.


After the switch-off plan led to concerns from residents that poorly lit streets could lead to an increase in crime, the city council has now admitted that installing LED lights could provide a more suitable energy-saving alternative.


Elsewhere, Cambridge Regional College (CRC) has introduced a new environmentally-friendly lighting system that is expected to reduce its carbon footprint by 40 per cent over the next five years, whilst also saving around £1.3 million in energy costs over the next decade.


CRC facilities manager Trevor Smith told The Cambridge News that the project will involve switching to LED lighting in all 12 of the campus’s buildings, and will also make use of special infrared sensors to detect when an area is unoccupied so that lights can be automatically switched off.