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New York City Street Lights To Go LED

Posted by Soulskill on from the big-apple-lite dept.

eldavojohn writes "Wired has a short piece on NYC's new street light project. I don't think we need to belabor the many benefits that LEDs hold over traditional light bulbs, but the finishing touches are being addressed, and they will hopefully be put into place sometime next year. This design won a competition back in 2004, and OVI has been whittling down the prototypes. At $1.175 million, this sounds like a pretty cheap deal considering the DOE forked over $21 million to 13 R&D projects along the same lines."

2 of 303 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Isn't HPS more efficient? by hardburn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Some of the newer LEDs can go above 100 lumens/watt.

    One thing about HPS is that it spreads light everywhere, whereas LEDs are more directed, which you want in a streetlight facing down. Omnidirectionalness can be fixed with good fixture design, but most cities use crummy fixtures.

    --
    Not a typewriter
  2. Re:Giant LED light bulbs by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why can't they make a single led the size of a lightbulb instead of 100 small led's.

    Is it possible to make a single, huge led?

    I don't know. Maybe it's the same reason that they can't make a tungsten filament the size of a whole light bulb. Instead, they keep selling us a tiny wire the size of a pubic hair surrounded by a huge void filled with argon gas. This has been going on for well over a century, and they never seem to fix it.