Street Light Contract Negotiation

Started by RS10 • 6 replies • 848 views

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RS10 (Florida)
Posts: 2

Posted:

10 years ago our HOA signed a horrible rental contract with Duke energy for street lights. Contract is running out soon and we are trying to do better on the next contract.
Electrical costs really haven't been bad as 250 street lights only cost around $6k/year for electricity( all nonLEDs). The whole contact, however, will have cost the HOA over $1 M in the 10 years.
Would anyone be willing to share numbers they have negotiated with Duke Energy Florida ?
Has anyone gone the private route? Pros/Cons?
As the contract expires we want to make the switch to LEDs.
Thanks

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Don't know much about the lighting issue. Will say that LED's are rather expensive to install. So is your HOA prepared for this expense?

Former HOA President

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

really depends on the contract, who owns the lights, etc. we cant guess.....

it may be possible you can hire a private contractor to install led for little money. led vs regular light is a huge savings. led is sold by brightness, new bulbs dont need to be as bright to save money on the bulbs and electricity.

NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216

Posted:

We're looking into changing street lamps. Not that much of a difference in cost of electricity. Maybe 30% at best. Big savings will come in maintenance costs. No ballasts or bulbs to go bad. Very costly to bring in a bucket truck for a small job.

Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By NpS on 10/18/2019 8:03 PM
We're looking into changing street lamps. Not that much of a difference in cost of electricity. Maybe 30% at best.

Well you could have savings of 90% if you pick the right bulb.

There variations in bulbs or light fixtures are endless. The more LED bulbs you add to a single fixture, the more electricity it uses. So ideally if you could only have a few leds that face towards the ground the electricity use would be very little.

If your only saving 30% on the bulb you chose, you should go back to the drawing board. Maybe replace the head at the top with a fixture that is LED in the first place. Maybe pick 3 different bulbs and put them on 3 different lights as a trial. See what one people like. Etc.

Its simple math to figure where the break even point is. If it cost this to replace and we save XX, it will take XX months to break even.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

Quote:

Very costly to bring in a bucket truck for a small job.

You could find a contractor who could rent a 30 foot Articulating Boom Lift for $400 day. You dont need an expensive boom truck.

NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SteveM9 on 10/19/2019 6:16 AM

Posted By NpS on 10/18/2019 8:03 PM
We're looking into changing street lamps. Not that much of a difference in cost of electricity. Maybe 30% at best.

We're going from metal halide to LED. Our local utility company charges by the type of fixture we have rather than the actual electricity. (Our street lamps are hot wired to their grid system - No meters.) Savings won't be that great for us per electric co.

Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.

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