Unitil installed six LED lights along the Water Street block running between First Street and the Fitchburg Green on Tuesday. There are a couple of unknowns in the experiment, Wong said. LED lighting is such new technology that it is unclear how long each light will last and it is unclear how much electricity each LED will save compared to the standard high-pressure sodium lights, Wong said. The LED lights are expensive compared to high-pressure sodium lights so the life-expectancy and electricity savings will need to make up the difference, she said. An LED light is about $800 compared to $150 for a typical high pressure sodium streetlight, Wong said. "Maybe it lasts longer, if that's the case then we would see a savings and any savings we would then pass on to turning on more lights and doing other things," Wong said. Unitil paid for the six lights installed on Tuesday. There are more than 3,000 streetlights in the city. LED lights work best in the cold weather so the experiment will need to continue into the spring and summer to develop a complete picture for a cost-savings analysis, Wong said. "We're going to be testing them throughout the winter as well as figuring out how we're going to get the up- front capital," she said. Other towns such as Belmont and Concord, N.H., are already testing the new bulbs, Wong said. "Unitil has always worked very closely with the city on various energy savings initiatives and this is a continuation of that work," said Unitil spokesman Wesley Eberle. To see more of the Sentinel & Enterprise or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Sentinel and Enterprise, Fitchburg, Mass. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. For full details for UTL click here.
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