In a vote 7-1, city officials of Seguin in Texas, U.S. approved the purchase of LED lights to be installed in the downtown area, and agreed to year-round illumination before sunset till 10:00 PM, reported Seguin Gazzette.

“We also looked into the LEDs, and there are several pros going that route,” said Main Street Program Director Kyle Kramm. “They use less energy, about a third of the cost that incandescent bulbs do, and they also have a longer life expectancy. The LED bulbs will burn for 50,000 hours versus the incandescent that burn for about 3,000 hours, so, it’s about 16 times the length that you would expect to get from the LED bulbs.”

Based on a memorandum from city staff, the cost to replace incandescent lights, and wire the LED luminaires would cost about US $71,650. Additional electrical costs is estimated to bring the total program costs to US$ 74,650.

According to a memorandum from city staff, the cost to install the old incandescent lights, remove the lights after the holiday season, and replace burned out bulbs and wire costs about $71,650 with electrical costs estimated at $3,000 for a total program costs of $74,650.

The upfront installation cost of the LED bulbs would fetch about US $106,000, which includes LED bulbs and wire for the city’s Central Park and courthouse, said Kram. However, annual costs to maintain the bulbs would decline to under US $10,000 per year. The city estimates it would cost about a quarter or about US $8,100 to operate the LED lights, compared to the US $ 32,000 currently spent on incandescent lights. Resulting in annual savings of about US $24,000.