LED lights coming
High-tech streetlights will come to several neighbourhoods, after council agreed to spend $365,000 to upgrade 1,000 lights with LED and adaptive-dimming technology.
While $415,000 of the project is covered by grants, the city needed to use some of its 2011 surplus to cover the rest of the costs of the upgrade.
David Duckworth, the city’s public works and sustainability director, said the lights will save the city $59,000 annually in power and maintenance costs.
The new lights, which are hooked into the cellular network, can be dimmed remotely and, instead of having to wait for a public complaint, city technicians will be alerted when one goes out.
Dimming the lights will also cut down on light pollution, but shouldn’t make much difference to pedestrians and drivers, Duckworth said.
“Really you can’t even tell the difference, he said. “It’s not that noticeable. If you have adequate spacing, the dimming shouldn’t be an issue.”
The city plans to donate the 1,000 old streetlights to a community in a developing nation.
Duckworth said he hopes to see all the city-owned streetlights in Kamloops switched to LED technology in the future, but there’s no set timeline for when that would happen and it could depend partly on whether the city picks up more grants for further retrofits.
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