LED light bulb replacement on seafront between St Helier and St Aubin (FOI)

​​Request

Several years ago the incandescent light bulbs on the seafront between St Helier and St Aubin were replaced with LED light bulbs.

A.

When were the bulbs changed from incandescent to LEDs?

B.

At the time of the switchover, TTS publicly gave a figure for the projected lifespan of each LED bulb. What was that figure?

C.

How does that projected lifespan per LED bulb compare to the actual lifespan that has been observed by TTS?

D.

How much has been spent on LED bulbs since the switchover from incandescent bulbs?

E.

How does the figure in (4) above compare to a time period of the same length, immediately before the switchover, when incandescent bulbs were used. (i.e. if LED bulbs have been used for the past 3 years and the bulbs cost £x, what was the cost in incandescent bulbs in the 3 years immediately before the switchover).

Response

A.

The festoon system was changed to LED over an installation period in the autumn of 2010.

B.

The projected lifespan of LED bulbs was stated by the supplier to be 50,000 hours. This was the figure that was published.

C.

Some of the original installed festoons are still in operation but some have failed much earlier than expected. Many of the earlier failures have been replaced by the supplier under warranty. The supplier and TTS have been in constant dialogue over the cause of these failures which is not being attributed to the LED lights but to the transformer units that convert the AC mains power to DC.

D.

The original purchase cost of the new festoon equipment was £48,000 for St.Aubin’s Bay and The Bulwarks. Since installation of the LED festoons, TTS has spent £63,800 with the supplier and £45,000 with a local maintenance contractor, this covers all the festoon lights in all the bays, not just St. Aubin’s.

E.

Pre-installation of the LED system, no records were kept specifically relating to maintenance costs of the old style festoons. The maintenance cost for festoons also includes maintenance of flood lighting schemes around the Island. We are unable to separate out festoon lighting costs for St Aubin’s Bay.