Substantial savings have put a glow on Ottawa's installation of low-energy street lamp bulbs.
Last fall, the city exchanged halogen for light-emitting diode bulbs along La Salle Street between Lafayette and Main streets, and on Veterans Drive at Stevenson Road.
The LED bulbs were paid for with a $9,056 Illinois Clean Energy Foundation grant.
The energy-efficient LED bulbs — rated to last 50,000 hours — were expected to cut electricity consumption by 79 percent — and came pretty close.
At Tuesday's City Council meeting, engineer Dave Noble said electricity charges for the refitted street lamps were averaging 75 percent less.
Where typical electricity charges for the street lamps were about $590 for August, September and October, the charges for the same street lamps with LED bulbs averaged $150 for March, April and May.
In addition, because of their additional life, there is an annual savings of about $2,500 per year on not having to change the bulbs so often.
"It's worked out really well," Noble said.