Is LED Really Cost Saving?

Date: 2010/12/24
NLPIP Specifier Report
The National Lighting Product Information
Program (NLPIP) at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute’s Lighting Research Center (LRC)
purchased 14 streetlights, identified by a
specifier survey, between July and October
2009. Four used high pressure sodium
(HPS), one used induction, eight used
light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and one
used pulse-start metal halide (PSMH) light
sources. NLPIP determined how many of
each type of streetlight were needed to
illuminate 1.0 mile (1.6 kilometer [km]) of a
collector roadway to meet the design criteria
specified by the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI)/Illuminating Engineering
Society of North America (IESNA) RP-8-00
(R2005), the American National Standard
Specifier Report :
Practice for Roadway Lighting (referred to as
RP-8 below). NLPIP then calculated power Streetlights for Collector Road
demand and costs per mile. by NLPIP, Nov 2010
Major Findings of the Report
• On average, the LED streetlights and the induction streetlight
could be paced only about one half the distance of the HPS
and PSMH streetlights
See how close is
the pole space

HPS
LED

LED streetlights require two more

luminaries than HPS in certain length
of road
Haiperion require less pole space

LED Streetlight Interval (S)

(15m)

Pole Height (H) To meet the road lighting

(10M) standard, pole space of
LED streetlights must be
shorten. Therefore, the
number of luminaries is
increasing.

Interval (S)
Haiperion (45m)
Pole Height (H)
(10M) Haiperion can reach up to
1:5.5 wide light distribution
and still meet road lighting
standard.
Total Cost Ownership (TCO)

Total pole cost account

for the most portion of
LED’s cost. Even LED
don’t need to relamping,
TCO of LEDs are still
mostly high than other
lighting solutions
Conclusion
• All in all, despite of severe luminance
decay and high maintenance cost, LED
streetlights’ narrow light distribution
resulting in more poles and luminaries
required. Consequently, in a perspective
of total cost ownership, LED is still not
economically viable at the moment.