City of Lights Turns Off Their Lights

Almost 5 years ago Paris launched a new energy saving plan to replace the lights that make the city glow.  The plan included replacing the standard incandescent light bulbs with metal iodide light bulbs on 125 of Paris' monuments.

The metal iodide lights bulbs have five times more energy efficiency than the regular incandescent light bulbs. The advantages of these light bulbs is that they provide excellent light, have exceptional long bulb life and have low cost per lumen of light output.

Now, five years later, the $2.33 million dollar project is finally completed. To begin the project, the total number of flood lights per monument was divided by 1.8 which resulted in 1,169 iodide light bulbs had replaced 2,087 incandescent light bulbs.

Now, just 218 kilowatts are necessary to power up the floodlights on the 280 Paris monuments, down 927 kilowatts from what was needed before to make the city glow. The operating cost for an iodide light bulb is 50 percent less expensive than for a standard light bulb, and the power bill is four times lower than it was previously.

Another way Paris is saving energy (and money) is by turning off the flood lights that illuminate the monuments. This action of turning off the lights started in the 1950s, way before fighting climate change became one of society's top concerns. Every night, at midnight or 1 a.m., depending on the monument and the season, the lights on monuments are automatically turned off for cost-saving purposes.

Paris is the leader is turning off their landmarks lights but hopefully the many other big cities around the world who keep the lights on their famous landmarks at night will become followers of Paris. They can also follow the lead and start switching their standard light bulbs to metal iodide light bulbs.