Kent County Council (KCC) using light-emitting diode (LED) traffic lights
Example of:
How good procurement practices can help improve sustainability
Key points:
Light-emitting diode (LED) lights last longer and need less energy to run them.
KCC will be the first local authority to bulk-replace all its traffic signals to LED lights.
The UK Energy Research Centre has found that converting all traffic signals to LED lights would save 57,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. The latest data from the Highways Agency also indicates that LED heads will last for at least 10 years compared to 6 months for the average tungsten-halogen lamp. The supply and installation of LED heads can be achieved for under £300 for a Red-Amber-Green signal and the equipment comes with a 6 year warranty.
KCC has over 16,500 signal lamps in Kent and almost 2.500 "WAIT" bulbs, all of which have to be replaced every 6 months. The Council will be the first Local Authority to bulk-replace their traffic signal heads to LED. This will have the following benefits.
- Saving over £1.8million over the first five years.
- Reducing energy consumption by 70%.
- Increasing health and safety due to removing the need to carry out lamp maintenance/replacement.
- Reducing the number of lamp failures at traffic signals.
- Reducing waste disposal – reducing the number of lamps and associated packaging to be disposed of by 400,000 units.