LED began to become the best choice for street lighting applications

Currently in the United States, the consumption of outdoor lighting electricity accounts for about 4.4% of the total generating capacity. It is based on this situation, the United States House of Representatives recently proposed a new bill, the phasing out of old technical requirements (such as the low efficiency of incandescent and halogen lamps), new lighting technology is more efficient, more cost-effective (such as high brightness LED) pave the way for the development of.

Worldwide, to government agencies, industrial and commercial areas, down to the ordinary people are actively seeking effective ways to reduce the energy consumption. The initial attempts were made to be easy to achieve, such as choosing appropriate residential insulation, using solar panels, and saving energy. Today, there is a relatively complete legal requirements, we must use energy-efficient white appliances, adapters and chargers, consumer electronics and office equipment. In recent years, with the continuous decline in the cost of high brightness LED, people have begun to re evaluate the products, such as standard household bulbs. In many countries, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, the new energy efficiency standards have risen to the law, will effectively prohibit the continued use of incandescent lighting.

House No. thirty-sixth California state MP JaneHarman speaking in March 26, 2009, proposed a "outdoor lighting energy bill, the bill plan to eliminate the problem by solving the street lighting lighting standards gradually. "The energy savings achieved by improving energy efficiency will be phenomenal," Harman said. According to an authoritative industry organization estimates, after the formal implementation of the bill, will eventually reduce the use of outdoor lighting energy consumption by more than 25%, an annual savings of $about 6000000000 in electricity costs. This figure is equivalent to the generating capacity of more than and 50 coal-fired power plants. "

New bill passed the house of Representatives, the first phase will be completed in 2011 to develop a standard, then the standard will be respectively in 2013 and 2015 completed. By then, the U.S. Department of energy will further improve energy efficiency standards. The bill also requires that the brightness of the outdoor lighting must be controlled so that the user can change the amount of their light, because people need different levels of brightness in the evening and late at night. This is very important because it will give the city, county and other users a greater control over the level of electricity they use. The bill is a reference to the relevant laws and regulations of the state of California and the outdoor lighting standards already adopted by other states.

LED lamps first appeared on the streets can be traced back to the last century in 90s, at that time, the city authorities began to use solid state lighting design to replace incandescent traffic signal lamp. In order to realize the energy saving and maintenance of LED traffic lights in the street lighting system, many cities (including AnnArbor, Michigan) have carried out a wide range of LED street lamp test. In the AnnArbor, it is estimated that after the installation of LED street lights, the annual savings of more than $100 thousand in electricity costs for the city, each year about 294 tons of greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions. These reproducible results seem to indicate that the museum will be after incandescent traffic signal lights old very quickly by high pressure sodium and high intensity discharge (mercury vapor lamp), because LED lights installed in North America, Europe and China is a common phenomenon.

The main advantage of LED lighting system is a long life, LED can continue to use 10 to 15 years, at least three times the traditional street life. Only in terms of low maintenance rate, LED can be a very attractive choice. In addition, due to the technical characteristics of LED, the amount can light the required control precision, and can be placed through the LED and optical optimization to adjust the direction of light, compared with the previous products, LED the efficiency level of up to 50% to 80%. Moreover, LED street lamp is not mercury, which is increasingly concerned about the environmental protection of the world, is undoubtedly a major bright spot.

Further advantage is that LED can provide the light distribution is very uniform, not only conforms to the current standard, also can eliminate glare and highlights. This ensures a good lighting effect, while reducing the visual fatigue of drivers and passers-by, and this does not produce any energy consumption. Because LED is working under low pressure and low temperature conditions, they do not appear to be yellowing or brightness decreased with the increase of working hours. In addition, different from the sodium lamp, the LED lamp can achieve the best brightness without time delay, so the lighting effect can be improved, and the energy consumption can not be increased.

Clinton climate action plan (CCI) under the "outdoor lighting plan" is currently in co-operation with Losangeles, the history of the largest city LED street lighting renovation project in Losangeles. CCI's outdoor lighting program also works with a number of partner cities to improve the energy efficiency of street lights and traffic light systems by integrating technology, procurement and project support. Losangeles Street authority plans in the next five years will be the city's existing 140000 street lamps replaced by LED street lights. Remote monitoring station will directly report to the management of street lamp failure, thereby reducing the time and improve the efficiency of road maintenance. According to the administration estimates that in the seven years of implementation of the plan, the city will save $48 million in electricity bills, and can reduce the carbon emissions of 197000 tons. Once the investment loan repaid (down payment loans will be borne by the current energy and maintenance cost savings to take part), this street renovation project each year will save $10 million in spending for Losangeles.