The city government of Baguio was able to save more than P39 million from the actual billing of streetlight expenditures after replacing conventional bulbs with light-emitting diode (LED) lights.
City Engineer Edgar Victorio Olpindo reported a 67.37 percent reduction in the actual billing computation before and after replacement of unmetered barangay streetlights at 9.7511 per kwh multiplied by 10 burning hours.
He said for the conventional streetlights, the city consumes 498,576 kilowatt per hour per month or 5,982,912 kwh per year equivalent to P4,861,664.43 per month or P58,339,973.16 a year.
With LED streetlights, the city now bills 162,685 kwh per month or 1,952,220 kwh per year equivalent to P1,586,451.82 per month or P19,037,421.84 a year.
The LED light project covering 7,485 streetlights funded under the city’s supplemental budget was completed on March 25, 2022.
Olpindo said each of the LED streetlights were assigned an identification code as to year of installation, barangay code number, and street unit number for efficient locating using Geographic Information System in case repair is needed.
On the environmental impact of the project, Olpindo said using LED lights reduces carbon dioxide emission to 204,497.14 kilograms compared to the conventional bulb.
He said it is equi-valent to 8,791 fully grown trees since approximately a ton (907.185 kgs) of carbon dioxide is equal to 36 to 41 trees.
“LED uses lesser power per unit of light generated in lumens,” he said. – Jessa Mardy P. Samidan
