End in sight for ‘yellow’ street lights

The end is in sight for most of the yellow-tinted street lights around Rancho Bernardo and Poway.

Crews working in Rancho Bernardo will have completed the swapping out of low-sodium lights with new light emitting diode (LED) lights by the end of August. In Poway, city officials will be testing three types of new LED lights in different parts of the city and plan to have all of the older lights replaced over the next couple of years.

Several reasons are contributing to the end of the yellow-light era, including the fact that low-sodium bulbs are already hard to find and will no longer be manufactured as of next June. LED lights are much cheaper to operate, last longer and do a better job at focusing the light where needed and not polluting the sky, officials said.

In San Diego, crews have completed the changeover in Rancho Penasquitos and are close to being finished in Rancho Bernardo, Scripps Ranch and Carmel Mountain Ranch, said Lorrie Cassio-Azar, the city’s program manager. These will be the first neighborhoods included in a 12,000-light project that will be done by the end of next year, she said. Each street light is receiving a new light unit plus a photo cell and adaptive control meter that will allow the intensity of the light to be adjusted and will send a notification if the light malfunctions, she said.

Lights in city parks and parking lots are being switched to LEDs, she said. Caltrans street lights near freeway ramps are not part of the project, she said.

The LED lights are 60 percent more energy efficient and are “dark sky compliant,” Casio-Azar said.

“The new lights will allow you to see better,” she said. “They provide efficient color rendering. They will shine directly down.”

The local work is part of a citywide project that is project to cost $30 million.

Several years ago San Diego replaced 36,000 street lights in other parts of the city with broad-spectrum induction bulbs, which are brighter and more cost-efficient than the yellow bulbs, she said. That project was completed in 2013. Those lights also do not pollute the sky and will be replaced with LED bulbs at the end of their life cycles, Cassio-Azar said.

Poway plans to spend about $1.1 million over the next several years to convert 3,075 street lights to LEDs, according to Eric Heidermann, assistant director of public works for maintenance and operations. The conversion of 218 traffic signals and related safety lights is also planned, he said. Once completed, the changeover should result in annual energy savings of about $86,000, he said. The cost of the conversions will be paid for out of reserves in the citywide lighting district, he said.

Pilot test areas have been set up in two parts pf Poway, with a third to be finished this week. Several types of LED lights have been selected for testing. Residents within the test areas have been notified by letter. Comments will be gathered by the public works department and a decision regarding which LED to use will be made in about three months, in time for conversions to begin next year, Heidermann said. Part of the decision will include which additional features to install on the lights.

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