Pittsburgh City Council has approved a $2.24 million study regarding the replacement of 44,000 high-pressure sodium street lights with LED lights. But it appears the “study” has a fatal flaw from the get-go.
As the Post-Gazette reports it:
“The study will determine which areas of the city are under- and over-lit, according to Kim Lucas, director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, giving officials ‘a lighting standard citywide so we can improve the light equity.’”
Talk about pure mumbo-jumbo. Talk about ignoring the real issue. For the real issue here remains whether such LED conversions even live up to what in too many cases has been an over-hyped billing.
Lucas, repeating the “green” mantra, has told City Council that what is expected to be a multimillion-dollar “investment” will save the city, and taxpayers, money. Less energy will be used and such lighting lasts longer, she says.
But experiences from around the country suggest that such LEDs — light-emitting diodes — used for street lighting are fraught with expensive problems.
And you don’t need to spend $2.24 million to learn what the problems are. Heck, we just Googled it. It took us less than 10 minutes to find enough credible evidence – anecdotal and scientific — to question the now by-rote claims of efficacy, efficiency and economy.
As the website lampshining.com reported two-and half years ago:
“The market price of LED street lamps is varied and the quality is uneven. … (M)anufacturers’ patent awareness is not strong and … innovation is insufficient. … (I)ndustry price wars cause manufacturers to continuously reduce costs in materials and processes. … Quality” – or lack thereof – “has a major impact and it is often seen that street lights begin to darken after a period of use.
“The way to replace the LED [lights] is very cumbersome. This is because there are many components inside the LED street light.” … On-scene inspections cannot be used to immediately determine light failures; they “typically must be shipped back to the factory for testing.”
“(T)the installation is difficult and the maintenance is more difficult … the unstable product quality makes the maintenance cost increase.”
Sounds great so far, eh?
But, wait, there’s more.
The American Medical Association pans often too bright and too uncalibrated LED street lights for disrupting sleep patterns.
Documented just this year, cities around the United States, and the world, have reported that many of the lights go from giving off an intense white light to a purple hue.
And investigators say that’s created by a problem endemic to many LED street light designs – poor heat dissipation burns off a laminate that gives the LEDs their white light, thus projecting the LED’s true light output color.
Oh, and that chronic poor heat dissipation has a habit of frying these units.
Pittsburgh is expected to put the LED streetlight project out to bid after its “equity” study. But there are numerous reports about LED street lighting low bidders relying on some of the most problem-prone products, plagued with counterfeit components.
Thus, it would have been far more prudent for the City of Pittsburgh to study whether converting to LED streetlights is worth the money – and the myriad reported problems – than a dubious and “social justice”-filled “lighting equity” study.
That said, and given the aforementioned and other critical issues surrounding this matter, it is incumbent upon city officials to perform expanded due diligence once the LED street lighting project’s bids are received.
Should it not, taxpayers will be on the hook for a very expansive, and expensive, failure.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
