Last Thursday, July 5th, the Johnson County Iowa Board of Supervisors passed a motion to apply for two grants to fund a project that would install LED Lights in all county buildings. The board meeting covers the discussion of which grants to apply for and what they’ll include in the transition to LED lights.

The complete estimated project cost is estimated at almost $110,000.00. As other cities have taken steps towards LED lighting this year, Rohnert Park California funded their transition from costly high pressure sodium lamps to LED with the Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant that they were awarded in 2009. The city had previously been spending $140,000 annualy on electricity for the HPS lights. The transition is expected to reduce energy costs by 40 percent, saving the city up to $56,000 every year. The transitioning from high costing lamps is spreading across the country, as cities and towns look to save money by reducing their energy and lighting costs. Be it by replacing all of the lights in Government buildings, or just changing street lights over to LED’s. Last year Seesmart partnered with the ALA (Associated of Los Angeles) to provide the City of Los Angeles LED lighting.

This trend isn’t limited to cities, but is also being seen on College Campuses across the country. The University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire student senate recently worked to allocate funds to bring the schools lighting system up to using LED lights. Also, Seesmart provided a retrofitted LED lighting solution for Pasadena City College’s fluorescent tube lights across its campus. After an ROI calculation and facility audit, PCC was outfitted with LED tube lights as detailed in Seesmart’s media release. All of these advances and changes have been brought about by the hard work of people who are looking to save money, and transition away from the costly, hazardous lighting materials of the past.