Lake in the Hills switching to energy-efficient streetlights

Lake in the Hills is partnering with ComEd to replace the village's conventional street lighting system with energy-efficient streetlights to save on electrical costs.

It joins Barrington Hills, Barrington, Fox River Grove, Fox Lake, North Aurora and Sleepy Hollow, all of whom have signed on with ComEd's new smart-ready light emitting diode (LED) streetlights program.

Converting the existing high pressure sodium and mercury vapor fixtures to LED fixtures will save Lake in the Hills more than $17,000 yearly, officials said.

The village budgeted $189,000 last year for leasing fixtures from ComEd and the cost of electricity. LED fixtures are expected to reduce those costs by 9 percent.

ComEd will use funds from its Smart Ideas Energy Efficiency Program to pay for the conversion. The upgraded technology comes at no cost to municipalities within ComEd's service territory.

"In the long run, it saves money and it makes all lights uniform," Village President Paul Mulcahy said. "It's a program that ComEd stands behind and we thought we would do it."

In April, ComEd announced plans to replace nearly 18,000 streetlights it owns with new smart-ready LED streetlights in more than 50 Northern Illinois municipalities.

ComEd launched its first smart streetlight in Bensenville and Lombard in February 2015. Smart streetlights use the wireless communications network ComEd installed as part of its smart grid.

Traditional streets lamps need 82-440 watts of power and last 12 years, whereas LEDs require 53-145 watts and last 18 years. Smart-ready LED streetlights consume one-third the electricity of the fixtures they replace and last up to one-and-a-half times longer, which means fewer light fixture outages, per ComEd.

Lake in the Hills' streetlights will be replaced by the end of the year, officials said.