This weekend’s Super Bowl will be the first to be illuminated with high-performance light-emitting diode (LED) stadium light fixtures, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (www.eia.gov).
The University of Phoenix Stadium was the first stadium in the NFL to light its playing field using only LEDs. The new lights draw approximately 310 kilowatts of energy compared with the 1,240 kilowatts required by the old system, a savings of about 75 percent.
Assuming an electricity cost of 15 cents per kilowatt hour, that means the new LED lighting costs about $47 per hour to light the field, compared to $186 per hour using the HID lighting system. Lighting maintenance costs for LEDs are also expected to be lower. The vendor also projects a 30 percent decrease in stadium cooling costs as a result of the LED fixtures, which generate less heat than HID lights.
