Streetworks Preserves the Town of Pepperell’s Night Sky, while Providing Energy and Maintenance Savings

A growing number of towns and communities around the globe are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment through lighting. Like many communities, Pepperell, Massachusetts, was still using high-pressure sodium lighting throughout the town. The Town of Pepperell began looking for a solution that could help reduce its energy consumption, while keeping its citizens safe after sunset. While most people are familiar with air and water pollution, light can also be a pollutant. As a Dark Sky-friendly community, Pepperell was looking for lighting that minimizes light pollution, reducing effects known as ‘glare’, ‘skyglow’ and ‘trespass’. Typical LED fixtures provide cooler color temperatures (CCTs), which can contribute more to skyglow compared to warmer CCTs. As a result, warmer CCTs are necessary for Dark Sky compliance.

Cooper Lighting Solutions provided a Dark Sky certified solution that met all of Pepperell’s desires, replacing all the town’s 409 high-pressure sodium light fixtures with LED light fixtures from the Streetworks Archeon Series. These Archeon LED luminaires reduce the town's total system wattage by over 80%; with greater than $80,000 in estimated maintenance savings and more than $800,000 in total savings estimated over a 10-year period.⁽¹⁾ Also, because the LED light fixtures of the Streetworks Archeon Series can deliver a lower color temperature than other LED light fixtures, they reduce glare, skyglow and light trespass. This makes them perfect for the Town of Pepperell to achieve its Dark Sky-friendly goals.

^{(1) Assumptions: 10 hour daily run rate, 0.2223 KWH average rate}