Iowa City saving big money with new parking garage lights

IOWA CITY - The city of Iowa City is saving big money thanks to new Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights recently installed in all five of the city's parking garages.

According to Kristopher Ackerson, Assistant Transportation Planner, the lights will save the city $500,000 over the next ten years.

"This has been a tremendous project for the city," said Ackerson. "It's really been a win-win."

The lights have cut-back energy costs so much that MidAmerican Energy contacted the city to see if the system was malfunctioning.

"The energy at several of the parking ramps has dropped by half, and they couldn't figure out how this could happen," Ackerson said.

City council member Mike Wright said he supports the expansion of the LED lights, and wants city staff to find other places to put them.

"If the cost saving is so big that MidAmerican contacted the city to say, 'are you using electricity in the ramps?' That's a big deal," Wright said.

The state office of Energy Independence helped fund most of the parking garage project by providing the city with a $419,000 grant, Ackerson said.

LED lights only need to be replaced once every ten years, that's about three times the lifespan of a regular light.