The Willow Glen Resident

Council Watch

City council orders half of S.J.'s stoplights to go green

City workers are replacing old bulbs with new low-cost, low-energy LEDs

By Cecily Barnes

Drivers probably haven't noticed the difference, but San Jose maintenance workers have been stealthily replacing half the bulbs in the city's stoplights with newer ones that save energy and money.

On a mandate from the City Council, workers from the Department of Streets and Traffic began swapping incandescent bulbs shining behind the red glass for "light-emitting diodes," or LEDs, about two months ago.

These electronic lights work as well as the traditional bulbs but use only 10 percent of the energy and thus save the city some $250,000 annually in energy costs, says Streets and Traffic senior traffic engineer Ron Northouse.

Several major intersections in Willow Glen are equipped with LEDs, including Lincoln Avenue at Coe Avenue, Willow Street, Minnesota Avenue and Curtner Avenue; and Foxworthy and Meridian avenues.

If drivers look very closely, they can see the difference between LED stoplights and those using incandescent bulbs.

"They look like Christmas tree lights," said Streets and Traffic director Wayne Tanda. "You take several hundred of them together to form a circle. Most people don't even notice that these are any different."

Some drivers have noticed a momentary flash when the light changes red. This is not Big Brother, but rather a burst of light that the LEDs emit when they turn on at full strength.

"They come on high and then adjust down to the current condition," Northouse said.

The advantages of LEDs outweigh this quirk, Northouse assures. Besides using substantially less energy, the LED only needs replacement about once every six years rather than every year, as do light bulbs.

"That will have an effect on our maintenance schedule--the number of times we'll need someone to go to the intersection and change the bulb," Northouse said.

And when the power goes out, LEDs can continue to operate using a relatively inexpensive battery backup. "That's something you can't do with a 1,650-watt light bulb," Northouse said.

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