City of Anaconda
Energy costs for city and county governments are often a very large budget item. But energy-efficiency upgrades can start at a smaller scale and still result in significant energy savings. One such area is street lighting.
The City of Anaconda would like to upgrade its current street lighting to LED to save energy, lower utility bills, and decrease maintenance. Current street lighting varies from metal halides to high-pressure sodium bulbs at four different sizes and wattages.
The Montana Resource Efficiency Program (MREP) conducted an audit of the current street lights by performing a street-by-street bulb characterization and lamp count. MREP then determined that corn-cobb-style LEDs, similar to the LED shown in the image at right, would be the simplest, most cost-effective retrofit for the City.
To allow for resident comment and to ensure that the light is bright enough and the color is acceptable for the area, MREP advised the City to test several city blocks with the recommended LED lights.
If installed, the project will result in the following savings:
- LED bulb cost: $49,327
- Utility incentives: $3,846
- Annual energy savings: $43,336
- Simple payback with energy savings: 1.05 years
