City of Cupertino

What is Cupertino doing to Improve streetlight infrastructure?

Upgrade to LED Light:

Increase Energy and Cost Efficiency

Pole Replacement:

Prevent failure of old inner rusty pole

Reduce Light pollution:

Protect wildlife and animals

Ensure Safety of our Community:

See the map for street lights near you

Pole Conversion

Replace the fluted poles to Type 15 poles by 2024
LED light fixtures installed as new poles are installed
Assessment for the rest of LED conversion is underway as part of the City's Capital Improvement Program during Fiscal Year 2023

	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Fluted	396	336	272	166	94	43	0
Type 15	0	60	124	230	302	353	396

Old Fluted Poles

30+ years old
Painted steel can rust from the inside out
Metal Halide light fixtures

New Type15 Poles

Hot galvanized dipped steel pole
35-55 year service life
Less chance of corrosion

Through our annual pole replacement projects and future inspection projects, we are being proactive in identifying and replacing poles that could be at risk from rusting and corrosive conditions.

A pole hit by a truck (Source: City of Cupertino Public Works)

Lamp Type

Benefits of LED are

Energy efficient: far less power to emit
Fewer energy emissions - less energy waste, less light, & heat pollution
Longer lifespan resulting in less waste and less labor
Quick start: no warm-up time

‟ The light-emitting diode (LED) is today's most energy-efficient and rapidly-developing lighting technology. ”

- (Source: The the U.S. Department of Energy)

(Source: The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission & HeiSolar)
	LED	Inductive	High Pressure Sodium	Metal Halide	Mercury Vapor
Rated Lamp Life (hrs)	Excellent: >50,000	Excellent: >100,000	Fair: 20,000 - 24,000	Fair: 14,000 - 18,000	Fair: 28,000
Net Efficiency (lm/W)	Excellent: >70	Excellent: >70	Good: 32 - 68	Fair: 21 - 34	Good: <60
Ability to Integrate Dynamic Controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Pros	Excellent energy efficient with less heat emission. Better directional and high-quality light, as well as low maintenance costs.	Excellent energy efficiency with superior lamp life.	Relatively energy efficient. Efficiency gains may be lost by over-lighting to mitigate poor color accuracy. Lamp is cheap.	Relatively energy efficient.	Historically, the advantages of Mercury vapor lamps are that they are more energy efficient than incandescent and most fluorescent lights, but now are getting absolute.
Cons	Expensive upfront cost	Has a larger size than other types of lamps, which inhibits it from effective light control.	A short service life, low light efficiency, poor color rendering, low power factor, low hot start, and low flux stability.	Most have a poor lamp life and high maintenance costs. Light pollution, UV emission if their outer glass breaks, and mercury and other heavy metals are used.	Hazardous emissions as it produces ultraviolet rays.

Cupertino received a grant back in 2010 to replace all the High-Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide lamps with Inductive lamps. Since that time as we have replaced all faulty lamps with LED. Conversion to LED will continue to happen over time as the Inductive lamps need to be replaced.

LED Conversion of the City-Owned Lights Culmulative Annual Costs

(Source: City of Cupertino Environment Dept)

Light pollution causes adverse effects such as disrupting ecosystem and wildlife and harming human health.

City of Cupertino are limiting unnecessary street light emission to restore dark sky

‟ The perils of light pollution go far beyond not being able to see as many stars. Too much brightness at night can harm people’s health, send migrating birds flying into buildings, disrupt food webs by drawing pollinating insects toward lights instead of plants ... ”

- (Source: ScienceNews)

What is Cupertino doing?

1. All street lights have maintained correlated color temprature of 3,000 Kelvin or less, which is recommended by American Medical Association.

Residential: 2700 Kelvin

Arterial(e.g Steven Creek Blvd): 3000 Kelvin

2. All of our street lights have Photo Electronic Controls to control when the lights will turn on and off. In the parks and parking lots this is done by timer.

3. Opting for LED lighting offers significant advantages in terms of energy efficiency. Additionally, a noteworthy benefit is the ability to purposely adjust the spectral composition of LEDs to match any desired action spectrum. Furthermore, LED lights come equipped with controllers that enable dimming capabilities. Cupertino is committed to integrating the most suitable light spectrum and dimming functionalities whenever feasible.

INFORMATION

International Dark-Sky Association

Can Street lighting reduce Crime?(University of Chicago)

Average Radiance and Cloud-Free Observations in June 2022 (source: Esri Imagery)

Need Service?

Report it with Cupertino 311

The city of Cupertino provides residents with improved access to issue reporting and other helpful city information. Through Cupertino 311, residents are able to report issues in their community to the city to address such as graffiti, potholes, and more.

Find who is maintaining the street light in the map Map

If the pole is maintained by PG&E, report to PG&E

Use Cupertino 311 Online Service

You will receive the follow up for you request through email. Find the request icon to make a request.