Frankenmuth to install 145 cost-saving LED streetlights on Main

The sparkle of LED lights is coming to Frankenmuth, bringing utility savings.The city's Downtown Development Authority will replace 120 street light systems on Main and 25 cobra-head light fixtures Weiss streets with the light emitting diode technology.The DDA estimates the retrofitted street lights will cut energy costs by 60 percent in the demonstration area of Main and Weiss streets and a 20 percent overall savings of about $11,000 per year. The city and DDA share commercial lighting costs 25 percent and 75 percent, respectively.
"As the LED product evolves into mainstream use, quality is improving and the cost to purchase is coming down," said Sheila Stamiris, DDA director. "We used an extensive process and knowledgeable resources to identify the quality benchmarks we needed assure the project a success both financially and aesthetically."A Michigan Energy Office's Advanced Lighting Technology Demonstration Grant of more than $70,000 will pay for the lights. The grant is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The energy office awarded the grants to 14 Michigan cities, including Bay City and Mount Pleasant.The Frankenmuth DDA also will match $35,000 for a total project cost of $105,000.Department of Public Works employees will install the new, U.S.- and Michigan-made lights and complete the project by June 30.The project keeps the current streetlight hardware.An incandescent light bulb has a CRI of 100 because it is basically as good as a black body radiator at rendering the eight specified colors stipulated by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).Falling prices to kill off half of Chinese LED chipmakers.The fact that it's not good at rendering different shades of blue is neither here nor there. It's as good as the yardstick.
"You have to be careful on the CRI scale and new technologies," The Society of Light and Lighting's Iain Macrae told Ars. "Where white light OLED and LED are concerned, there is already a question if the use of RGB color mixing is less suited to the current measure. The CIE are currently looking at more appropriate measures based on research. CRI is of course important for domestic and workplace lighting; generally, a CRI above 80 is considered minimum good practice. New technology doesn't change the way we see. The eye hasn't evolved in line with technology. Color rendering is still important to being able to see well, just the measure may need to change."Ideally, for a lamp to accurately render color, it will have both a high CRI and the color temperature of daylight—5000 to 6000K. The upshot of the GL350's CRI combined with its color temperature is that its color-rendering performance should be much the same as halogen lighting.