Anchorage Daily News

If you never learned to love the glow of Anchorage's pinkish-orange street lamps -- or the way some of them aim their way into your bedroom at night -- take heart.

Earlier this month, the Anchorage Assembly appropriated $2.2 million to phase out about a fourth of the city's street lamps, replacing the old energy-hog sodium bulbs with "smarter" fixtures that emit whitish, power-saving LED light.

Because the new lamps use about 50 percent less electricity than the old lights, the city expects to save $360,000 a year in energy costs alone, according to Mayor Mark Begich, who introduced the measure last month.

The new lights are also expected to last up to 20 years -- about seven times longer than the old high-pressure sodium bulbs, which burn out every two or three years, according to Michael Barber, the city's lighting program manager.

The old lights had one virtue -- at about $10 a bulb they were cheap, Barber said. And the new lights will come with one drawback -- at $500 per fixture, they're expensive. But the city expects to save money in the long run by virtually eliminating the $100,000 a year it pays to change bulbs.

"We have 8,000 light bulbs that are burning out every two and a half years, and we're sending out union labor to go and change them," Barber said. "And while the bulb doesn't cost very much, the labor does."

The new lights are also touted as an improvement in terms of safety and aesthetics.

Whereas the old lights would sometimes shine places people didn't want them to shine, the LEDs are shielded and can be aimed where they're needed, Barber said. They also create less glare in the sky.

The quality of light is different too. A controlled survey by the mayor's office last winter involving 50 Anchorage residents in one group and 40 lighting experts in another found that both groups preferred the whiter, full-spectrum LED lighting to the orangish hue of the old street lamps.

Examining a test area in South Anchorage, women said they felt safer on the streets with the white lights, and police said the new lamps made night objects easier to see and the colors more realistic.

"The police are really excited because they'll be able to I.D. cars now," Barber said. "They can see what color jacket people are really wearing -- rather than blue looking like some sort of beige."

But don't expect Anchorage to transform itself overnight. Not affected by the initiative are the giant, state-operated light towers along the Seward and Glenn highways with their massive 8,000-watt bulbs that shine like orange beacons 130 feet high. Also unaffected will be the state-maintained lights on the city's busiest streets.

In all there are about 16,000 street lamps in the Anchorage Bowl, Eagle River and Girdwood that are either maintained by the city or by local utilities and another 2,000 or so lamps maintained by the state, Barber said.

The initiative passed by the Assembly will allow the city to replace half the 8,000 streetlights it oversees, beginning on residential streets with the smallest lights -- the 150-watt street lamps that stand 30 feet high -- followed by the 250-watt street lamps on "collector streets" (roads with a speed limit of 35 mph).

Barber expects the LED, or "light emitting diode," fixtures to begin arriving from their Wisconsin-based manufacturer in October, and for their installation to take approximately six months. What neighborhood they'll go in first isn't yet decided.

Several other cities in America are testing energy-efficient LED street lamps as well, including Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Albuquerque and San Diego. But Anchorage is in the forefront of cities actually installing them on their roadways, Barber said.

Other cities in Alaska considering LED street lamps include Cordova, Soldotna and Fairbanks. Fairbanks could reap even greater savings than Anchorage does, Barber said, since the diesel-generated power there is so expensive to produce.

"They could save more than $500,000 a year, and it would pay for itself in three years," he said.

If the LED street lamps prove popular in Anchorage, a Phase II is waiting in the wings that would convert another 4,000 city-maintained street lights. Those would include the 400-watt street lamps along some of the city's "arterial" roadways (streets where the speed limit is 45 mph) as well as lights along the city's ski and bike trails.

Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318.

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