'Green' lights illuminate downtown Salt Lake

SALT LAKE CITY — This is the time of year when driving down the street or visiting a shopping center takes on a whole different look and feel.

And if you sense there's more holiday illumination downtown than usual, you're right.

"We have more lights downtown this year than we've ever had in the past, over one million bulbs," said Danica Farley, with the Downtown Alliance of Salt Lake.

She explained there are 19 miles of Christmas light strands covering trees and buildings from Temple Square to The Gateway to EnergySolutions Arena, down 300 South and the Broadway District, and Main Street up to South Temple.

Obviously, all this extra lighting in the months of November and December suck up more power. But holiday lighting is becoming more "green."

Manufacturers are moving away from the incandescent lights to the "Light Emitting Diodes," or LEDs. They're richer in color and cost less to operate.

"LEDs are more energy efficient and can save up to 80 percent of the electricity that's used by conventional incandescent mini lights and can last up to ten times longer," said Jeff Hymas, a spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power.

For a modest residential display, swapping incandescent lights for LEDs could reduce your power bill $10 to $20 a month, depending on how many hours they're lit.

For the big commercial lighting projects, however, with thousands of strings, the savings can be huge. That's why Trolley Square made the switch this season to all LEDs for its displays, indoors and out.

Dawn Katter, Trolley Square property manager, said, "Our Christmas decor is on 24/7 here. It goes on about the 19th of November and stays on until the end of the year, so that's a lot of use of daytime and night use of power that could be saved."

Temple Square and Hogle Zoo have also converted to LEDs, with a million bulbs now burning.

The big community trees in many Utah cities are using them. The trees on the plaza of EnergySolutions Arena are also decorated with the energy-efficient lights.

"The good thing about switching to LED is that the lifespan of your lights lasts a lot longer," Katter said. "So the initial cost can be costly, but you will see that savings over the years."

Hymas agrees. "Over time it's possible that regular incandescent lights will be phased out and you'll see more compact florescent and certainly more LEDs. That's a good thing because it'll mean people will use less energy, will have lower bills, it's better for the environment."

Farley with the Downtown Alliance adds, "It makes you feel good because you're contributing to the health of now and to the health and future of our children and generations to come. We live in just a beautiful city, we want to keep it as green as possible."

e-mail: kmccord@desnews.com