Lights are shining the University at Buffalo's North Campus because the university has replaced some conventional lamps with LEDs. Five new LED street lights were installed on the service road leading to the Baker Chilled Water Plant on the North Campus, while a total of four new LED interior lights were installed in corridors in the UB Center for the Arts and 20 LED lamps were installed in the main lobby of Alumni Arena, home of the UB Athletics Department.

One such company, Solid State Lighting (SSL) Industries, got its start in the UB Technology Incubator located on Sweet Home Road, just off campus, where the company still is based. The company's founder Dennis Ryan, UB alum and a graduate of UB's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, approached UB Facilities last semester and convinced the university to conduct an objective test of several LED products from different vendors, including SSL. All of the UB analyses will be made public in March.

Al Gilewicz, UB assistant director of utility operations, notes LED is definitely an emerging technology that has a lot of merit. As it matures, it stands a chance of really changing how they look at and provide lighting in buildings. Gilewicz pointed out that indoors, they already have data showing that just by switching to LED lights in these areas, they would cut their annual carbon emissions by approximately seven metric tons. Energy savings for the interior areas have been calculated to total nearly 8,000 kilowatts per year in the Center for the Arts and 10,500 kilowatts per year in Alumni Arena. Payback on the investment would vary, from less than two years to around three years; after that period, Gilewicz said that their data show sufficient cost savings to make the investment sensible.

According to Gilewicz, UB Facilities actively pursues energy-reduction strategies in compliance with the university's plan to go "climate-neutral," reducing or offsetting all of its greenhouse gas emissions, as a result of UB President John B. Simpson's signing of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Gilewicz explained lighting consumes 25-30% of all the energy used by a building, they test the LED technology to see if it would provide a level of lighting that was the same as or better than their existing lights, while using less electricity and reducing carbon emissions. The potential to use LED street lights may ultimately provide even more benefits. Preliminary data indicate that the LED fixtures draw roughly half of the energy of the existing high-pressure sodium street lights they use, he added. And universities aren't the only institutions that are interested in using LEDs for street lights, he said. Even the power companies are interested in their results.

While commercial use of LEDs is soaring, it may be awhile before LEDs are common household items. Nevertheless, according to manufacturers like Buffalo's SSL Industries, LEDs can last for up to 75,000 hours, lasting 17 years, before losing 30% of their brightness while incandescent bulbs are said to last an average of 700 to 1000 hours.