LED is just better. Langley City’s streetlight conversion program in progress.

One of the significant services that Langley City provides to its residents is street lighting. In fact, it was street lighting that caused Langley City to become a municipality in the first place as the Township of Langley council back in the mid-twentieth century did not want to invest in urban infrastructure for our community. We were told “not a nickel for streetlights!”

Langley City is planning to invest $312,330 to operate its streetlight network this year. This investment does not include the funding for replacing the older turquoise streetlights downtown, or the LED streetlight replacement program.

A section of streetlights near 53rd Avenue near 204th Street that has been converted to LED. Select image to enlarge.

If you take a look along some of the roads and pathways in our community, you may have noticed a change in the colour of the lighting (and maybe even a change in the design of the streetlight heads). Langley City is in the process of replacing all our streetlights with LED streetlights.

Changing our streetlights to LED has several benefits. The City of Kelowna recently completed a massive conversion of their community’s streetlights to LED technology. They noted the following benefits:

• A longer lifespan (100,000 hours) for streetlight heads
• Reduced maintenance requirements for streetlights
• 62% reduction in electricity consumption for streetlighting
• Higher quality lighting which improves clarity and the ability to see details while walking or driving
• More focused and directional lighting, reducing the amount of wasted light and “uplight” or “skyglow”, ensuring light is focused on roads and sidewalks where drivers and pedestrians will benefit from it the most. This is also known as being “Dark Sky Friendly.”

A snippet from the GE LED streetlight brochure on the "coefficient of utilization" and light pollution. Select image to enlarge.

This is real a win-win: better lighting and lowers cost for the city. The cost savings realized can be used to invest into other priorities for our community.

Except for the LED streetlights on 203rd Street (between Grade and Michaud) and 56th Avenue east of Glover, the City is using GE Evolve LED Roadway Lighting. If you want to get into the technical specifications, a production brochure is available to read. Langley City, like some other municipalities in BC, is taking part in a provincial LED streetlight purchasing program which provides better pricing for LED streetlight heads than if the City went it alone.

It is expected that Langley City’s streetlights will be fully converted to LED by the end of this year.

An example of a BC Hydro-owned streetlight. Select image to enlarge.

As a note, if you see streetlights on utility poles like as shown in the previous picture, they are owned by BC Hydro. They have their own LED streetlight replacement program which they are anticipating to start in the summer of 2020.