Energy saving lights provide better field of vision for drivers
Emilyn Yap Business Times 11 Feb 11;
LED street lights could be making their way to more parts of Singapore in two to three years' time, as government agencies test them out on a broader scale.
It is not just the environmentally conscious who might root for the arrival of these energy saving lights. Drivers too, could have reason to cheer as LED lights create a better field of vision at night.
Almost all roads in Singapore today are lined with high pressure sodium lamps which give off an orange hue. LED lights, however, are a closer match to sunlight.
Over in one-north, a stretch of road has become a test-bed for LED street lights. In April, JTC Corporation and a Taiwan-based firm Foxsemicon Integrated Technology (Fiti) installed new lights there to compare their performance with conventional lamps.
Results showed that at the same level of brightness, LED street lights consumed around 18 per cent less energy than conventional lights. Based on this, energy savings for that more than 200-metre road segment would come up to over $60 a month.
LED street lights might also have a longer lifespan. Fiti believes that they can work for more than 45,000 hours, while conventional street lights might last just 20,000 hours. Given that street lights in Singapore operate for around 12 hours a day, LED lights can potentially last 5.7 years more.
But one major obstacle in the adoption of LED lights is the high cost. Chris Huang, from Fiti's business development unit, estimates that the market price of a high pressure sodium lamp is around $650-700, while that of an LED lamp can go up to around $1,200.
To further explore the viability of having LED street lights in Singapore, JTC will be testing them out at another stretch of road at its upcoming CleanTech Park.
JTC has received seven proposals for the test-bed, and it will be assessing them together with the Land Transport Authority. The first round of tests should take place in the third quarter this year.
Other new estates under JTC's watch, such as Mediapolis, are potential candidates for more trials, said JTC engineering planning division director Koh Chwee.
With more rounds of tests, and as technology improves, LED street lights 'should be ready to be rolled out on a bigger scale' in another two to three years' time, he said.
