xcel
04-03-2007, 07:33 PM
Warminster expects its electric bill for traffic lights to drop from $18,120 per year to about $1,268! (http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-04022007-1323806.html)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/LED_Traffic_lights.jpgMelissa Busch - PhillyBurbs - April 2, 2007
LED Traffic lights use 90 + percent less electricity than traditional incandescent traffic signals and last 5 to 10 times longer. This longer life translates into substantial maintenance savings. Another advantage is increased visibility due to non-use of any type of diffusing lensing. They are also constructed in compliance to DOT Standard’s and are available in polycarbonate housings of 192 LEDs per assembly.
Warminster is greener than it's ever been.
The township has changed its traffic signals to energy-efficient lights, added an environmentally friendly gasoline/electric-powered hybrid SUV to its fleet of vehicles, and one department has cut its mileage by scheduling site inspections in one area for the same day.
“One hybrid vehicle here or there may not make all that much of a difference at first, but it sets an example for the rest of the township,” Warminster Supervisor Richard Luce Jr. said.
States, cities and municipalities across the country are doing their part to be kinder to the environment to combat global warming. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane emissions, contribute to climate change by increasing the ability of the atmosphere to trap heat. These gases naturally occur in the atmosphere, but additional quantities come from transportation, development and industrial activities.
Doylestown last week committed to using 20 percent clean energy by 2010.
The clean energy will come by way of manure from the Hillcrest Saylor Dairy Farm in Rockwood, Somerset County. It will be heated in a machine — called a digester — at about 100 degrees for about 25 days, and the methane gas will be collected.
Some of the newly produced gas will be used to power a generator on the farm, but the rest will be used to power generators for electric companies. Most power in Pennsylvania comes from coal, but water and methane also are used.
“It's not like they're going to drive a truck here with our clean energy and pump it into our system,” borough Manager John Davis said last week.
“The electrical grid is like a big bathtub. Power is pouring in from different sources,” explained George Hoguet, director of mid-Atlantic operations for NativeEnergy, a Vermont-based renewable-energy provider.
Although cleaner energy is good for the environment, it isn't cheaper.
Doylestown paid $236,000 for electricity in 2006. The borough will pay an additional $762 this year so 5 percent of its energy will come from cow manure. Officials plan to increase the borough's use of farm methane to 20 percent by 2010 at an additional cost of $3,139.
The borough will pay a total of $7,771 more in the next four years for clean energy than it would have paid for regular energy.
The state also is on the clean-energy bandwagon. Gov. Ed Rendell recently announced that Pennsylvania was purchasing 20 percent clean energy for government electricity generation.
Upper and Lower Makefield townships in Lower Bucks and Jenkintown and Upper Dublin in Montgomery County also made similar commitments.
Those kinds of pledges qualify municipalities for a $10,000 solar-energy system provided by SmartPower, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization. The 100-square-foot system includes solar panels that are made of silicone.
The panels are installed on a building roof or on the ground near the building, said Molly Tsongas, a SmartPower project associate. The system converts sunlight to electricity. SmartPower pays installation costs and the system requires little to no maintenance, she said.
Tsongas said municipalities get the system by providing clean energy to 7 percent of the combined households and businesses, or they can buy the equivalent of 60,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month from clean energy.
Doylestown, for example, is at 4 percent now and will get the system when it reaches the goal, she said.
“They are creating a demand for clean energy in the area,” Tsongas said.
Montgomery County also is committed to fighting global warming.
Earlier this year, commissioners created the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Task Force to come up with an action plan and strategies for cutting down on greenhouse-gas emissions within the county.
In Warminster, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation replaced the township's incandescent traffic lights with extremely efficient light-emitting diodes, known as LEDs, Luce said. It cost the state about $45,000 to replace the lights.
Montgomery Township is another municipality that switched to this type of lighting at its facilities.
Those types of lights can reduce electricity costs by at least 80 percent. Warminster expects its electric bill for traffic lights to drop from $18,120 per year to about $1,268 per year, Luce said.
LEDs are more expensive but last 133 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Energy is saved in maintenance and replacement costs because the bulbs last for years.
“We have to do whatever we can,” Luce said.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/LED_Traffic_lights.jpgMelissa Busch - PhillyBurbs - April 2, 2007
LED Traffic lights use 90 + percent less electricity than traditional incandescent traffic signals and last 5 to 10 times longer. This longer life translates into substantial maintenance savings. Another advantage is increased visibility due to non-use of any type of diffusing lensing. They are also constructed in compliance to DOT Standard’s and are available in polycarbonate housings of 192 LEDs per assembly.
Warminster is greener than it's ever been.
The township has changed its traffic signals to energy-efficient lights, added an environmentally friendly gasoline/electric-powered hybrid SUV to its fleet of vehicles, and one department has cut its mileage by scheduling site inspections in one area for the same day.
“One hybrid vehicle here or there may not make all that much of a difference at first, but it sets an example for the rest of the township,” Warminster Supervisor Richard Luce Jr. said.
States, cities and municipalities across the country are doing their part to be kinder to the environment to combat global warming. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane emissions, contribute to climate change by increasing the ability of the atmosphere to trap heat. These gases naturally occur in the atmosphere, but additional quantities come from transportation, development and industrial activities.
Doylestown last week committed to using 20 percent clean energy by 2010.
The clean energy will come by way of manure from the Hillcrest Saylor Dairy Farm in Rockwood, Somerset County. It will be heated in a machine — called a digester — at about 100 degrees for about 25 days, and the methane gas will be collected.
Some of the newly produced gas will be used to power a generator on the farm, but the rest will be used to power generators for electric companies. Most power in Pennsylvania comes from coal, but water and methane also are used.
“It's not like they're going to drive a truck here with our clean energy and pump it into our system,” borough Manager John Davis said last week.
“The electrical grid is like a big bathtub. Power is pouring in from different sources,” explained George Hoguet, director of mid-Atlantic operations for NativeEnergy, a Vermont-based renewable-energy provider.
Although cleaner energy is good for the environment, it isn't cheaper.
Doylestown paid $236,000 for electricity in 2006. The borough will pay an additional $762 this year so 5 percent of its energy will come from cow manure. Officials plan to increase the borough's use of farm methane to 20 percent by 2010 at an additional cost of $3,139.
The borough will pay a total of $7,771 more in the next four years for clean energy than it would have paid for regular energy.
The state also is on the clean-energy bandwagon. Gov. Ed Rendell recently announced that Pennsylvania was purchasing 20 percent clean energy for government electricity generation.
Upper and Lower Makefield townships in Lower Bucks and Jenkintown and Upper Dublin in Montgomery County also made similar commitments.
Those kinds of pledges qualify municipalities for a $10,000 solar-energy system provided by SmartPower, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization. The 100-square-foot system includes solar panels that are made of silicone.
The panels are installed on a building roof or on the ground near the building, said Molly Tsongas, a SmartPower project associate. The system converts sunlight to electricity. SmartPower pays installation costs and the system requires little to no maintenance, she said.
Tsongas said municipalities get the system by providing clean energy to 7 percent of the combined households and businesses, or they can buy the equivalent of 60,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month from clean energy.
Doylestown, for example, is at 4 percent now and will get the system when it reaches the goal, she said.
“They are creating a demand for clean energy in the area,” Tsongas said.
Montgomery County also is committed to fighting global warming.
Earlier this year, commissioners created the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Task Force to come up with an action plan and strategies for cutting down on greenhouse-gas emissions within the county.
In Warminster, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation replaced the township's incandescent traffic lights with extremely efficient light-emitting diodes, known as LEDs, Luce said. It cost the state about $45,000 to replace the lights.
Montgomery Township is another municipality that switched to this type of lighting at its facilities.
Those types of lights can reduce electricity costs by at least 80 percent. Warminster expects its electric bill for traffic lights to drop from $18,120 per year to about $1,268 per year, Luce said.
LEDs are more expensive but last 133 times longer than incandescent bulbs. Energy is saved in maintenance and replacement costs because the bulbs last for years.
“We have to do whatever we can,” Luce said.