How many lights will be converted under this project?

Approximately 53,500City-owned will be converted to LED Lights.

Will the color of the LED street lights be white like those installed by the State Department of Transportation?

The State Department of Transportation installed LED street lights with a color temperature of 4000K along the freeways and major state roadways.  The City will be installing warmer white LED street lights with a color temperature of 3000K along the streets in residential areas and with a color temperature of 4000K along the major streets in commercial/mixed use areas, such as along King Street in Downtown Honolulu.  Approximately 90% of the new LED street lights will have the 3000K color temperature.

How will the City control the operations of the new LED street lights?

The new LED street lights will be controlled by a wireless network that will allow the City to remotely manage the operation of the street lights on an individual or group basis and also measure their energy consumption.

What is the expected energy savings from this project?

The LED street light conversion project is expected to reduce energy consumption by 60% or approximately 16 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.  This is the amount of electricity consumed by 2,800 homes on Oahu.  The estimated cost savings is $5 million annually.

How is the City paying for the project?

The City will be using the energy savings to pay for the project over a 10-year period after the completion of the construction phase.

How will this project impact traffic?

The work will be done during the day from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.  However, there may be instances where work on heavily used streets will be done at night or on weekends to minimize impact to traffic.

On average, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to replace an existing street light with a new street light.

How do the new LED street lights control light pollution and light trespass?

The LED street lights in the residential areas will have a flat glass lenses that will eliminate uplight and will have an internal reflector system to focus the light on the roadway.  This will also greatly reduce the impact to migratory seabirds.  These street lights with 3000K color temperature have also been approved by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

Note:  The LED street light fixtures along North King Street in Kalihi and in Chinatown will have globe-type lenses to match the style of the existing fixtures.  There will be some uplight from these fixtures due to the physics of light transmittance through the lenses.

I have been reading that LED lights may affect human health.  How are you ensuring the LED street lights don’t negatively affect the public’s health?

The effects of the LED street lights on human health will be negligible because the light will be directed on the roadways with very little trespass onto private property.  Furthermore, we are using the 3000K color temperature LEDs, which have less blue content than the 4000K LEDs and are recommended by the American Medical Association (AMA).