McHenry Times

The city of Woodstock recently received a $10,000 grant to upgrade lighting in the historic downtown district.

The Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation awarded the grant to assist the city in upgrading the fixtures, which include the lamps, ballasts and controls, if necessary. The goal is to reduce energy consumption.

The city must pay half the cost of the upgrades to the light fixtures. The first step is to select compatible LED light fixtures for the eight poles on Main Street. Installation will commence in late 2015 or early 2016.

After installing the fixtures, the city must file a report with the Community Foundation. The report is to include the cost of the project, the performance of the fixtures and the savings, both energy and financial, of the new lighting.

To reduce the city's overall lighting and energy costs, it is considering replacing more of the downtown district's light fixtures with LED fixtures. The multiyear plan would spread the costs over several years.

In terms of household usage, light emitting diodes (LED) provide a significant savings over traditional incandescent and halogen lights. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that a 12 watt LED uses 75 to 80 percent less energy than a 60 watt incandescent bulb and 72 percent less than a 43 watt halogen bulb. In addition, the LED life is approximately 25,000 hours. The initial cost of the LED may be higher than traditional light bulbs, but the overall costs over the life of the LED are significantly lower.