Every day, more than 300,000 motorists pass by the electronic sign alongside Interstate 110 that announces coming events at the Los Angeles Coliseum and the Sports Arena — the venue listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks and the only stadium to host two Olympic Games (1932 and 1984), two Super Bowls (including the first, in 1967), a World Series and a host of major concerts as well as mass political and religious events.

Pervaiz Lodhie was one of those motorists some months ago, driving up the Harbor Freeway, just south of downtown Los Angeles. “This is an iconic marquee on a key north-south transportation corridor that connects Los Angeles’ central business district and the Port of Los Angeles,” remarks Mr. Lodhie. “And yet, since the last Olympics, I’ve seen the sign deteriorate in light quality, consistency and brightness.”
He should know. Mr. Lodhie is founder and president of LEDtronics, one of the first solid-state lighting design and manufacturing companies in the country. He has driven past the freeway sign since the days before the 1984 Olympics, when he commuted to California State University’s Los Angeles campus, working on his Mechanical Engineering degree. In the 30 years since then, LEDtronics has grown from its start as a small two-person operation to become one of the world’s leaders in the currently flourishing industry of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly light-emitting-diode (LED) lamps, serving the challenging lighting needs of some of the largest Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.
“That particular day I decided it was time to do something to bring the sign back from disrepair and to improve the image of the city and one of its world-renowned assets,” Mr. Lodhie says. “After living the immigrant success story, it was time to give back to the community.”
After contacting the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, his offer to have all 160 energy-hungry, burnt-out fluorescent T12 tube lights replaced with energy-efficient bright LED T8 lamps was gladly accepted.

“With some quick and dirty math, the freeway sign is consuming almost 300 KwH less per day—nearly a 57% reduction in daily consumption,” notes Robert C. Joyner, head of the commission’s Stadium Operations and Special Projects. “This dramatic overall reduction is exclusive to these 160 vertically mounted LED tubes. It started in September 2012 and continued to dip through December as we replaced those old fluorescent bulbs illuminating the vertical Red, White and Blue stripes with the LED tube replacements donated by LEDtronics.”
At a meeting in December, Interim Manager John R. Sandbrook expressed the commission’s appreciation to Mr. Lodhie and other LEDtronics managers for the donation of the tube lights, specifically acknowledging the consistency and brightness of the LED T8 lamps.
At an average cost of $.20 per KwH, Mr. Joyner estimates that the energy savings amount roughly to $1,800 per month, or nearly $20,000 per year!
“I am glad this replacement project completed both its objectives: to reduce our overall electrical consumption and to improve the sign’s aesthetics for the public,” he adds.
The upgraded electronic message board sits on the east side of the Harbor Freeway and provides a total of 3,000 square feet of off-site signage for Coliseum and Sports Arena events as well as commercial advertising. The marquee is elevated some 45 feet from the ground.
The 8-foot LED T8 tube lights consume only 36 watts of power and replace fluorescent lamps that consume up to 60 watts. In addition to energy savings, LED T8 tube lights last up to 50,000 hours with a maximum degradation of only 30% in the harsh outdoor environment.
“Whenever I drive by the freeway sign nowadays, I feel glad at what a bit of new technology can do to lift up one’s civic pride and to affirm one’s belief in the American Dream,” remarks Mr. Lodhie. “The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was dedicated in 1923 to honor World War I veterans; what better way to keep that message alive than with an electronic marquee that gleams with red, white and blue lights to thousands of freeway drivers every single day.”

04-JAN-13
Post-Top LED Street Lamps Help
the City of Roses Reduce Energy and
Maintenance Costs, Carbon Footprint 

LEDtronics post-top LED lamps dot the streets around historic Pasadena City Hall

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LEDtronics post-top LED lamps provide traffic and pedestrian safety on residential streets across Pasadena

Torrance, Calif., Jan. 4, 2013—Ever since it erected its first lamp posts in the late 1890s, with electricity generated from its own municipal power plant a decade later, street lighting in the City of Pasadena, California, has undergone many changes in the ensuing decades with every new innovation in lighting. The latest such technology that the city has adopted in the last several years may be its most transformative. Internationally famous for the Tournament of Roses Parade, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and the Rose Bowl, Pasadena was one of the early cities to sign onto the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Control Agreement in 2005, committing to reduce its carbon footprint dramatically by 2020. It is one of the few cities in the nation to draft and implement a Green City Action Plan.
Along the same line, the city was one of the first to apply to a federal grant earmarked for energy programs that was part of the $787 billion stimulus package Congress approved in 2009. Pasadena had several “shovel-ready” projects at hand, many of them involved using longer-lasting, more energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs to replace outdated metal halide (MH) street lights that waste energy and have high maintenance costs.
Seven months later, the U.S. Department of Energy authorized the city with up to $1,507,800 in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to be utilized “to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases and develop and retain jobs.”
LEDtronics, Inc. is one of the Southern California companies helping the Pasadena City Council in its goal to “increase conservation and sustainability” and put these funds to good use.
Even before the federal stimulus grant became available, LEDtronics, a Torrance-based firm that started the energy-saving LED lighting innovations in the U.S. almost 30 years ago, had helped the city implement several light-replacement projects. Working with the city’s Department of Public Works, LEDtronics supplied fifty 40-watt LED acoustic-ceiling fixtures that replaced old 90-watt ballasted-type fluorescent fixtures in Pasadena Central Library’s document room. Subsequently, the company designed and implemented a high-power 95-watt LED cluster for retrofit to replace metal-halide bulbs and ballasts totalling 900 watts in the pendant lighting fixtures in the library’s main lobby and other common areas. The project did not compromise the library’s historical integrity, and helped the city save tens of thousands of dollars annually in energy and maintenance costs. LEDtronics also had helped to customize Pasadena High School’s aging message board with 2,500 red ½-watt miniature LED bulbs.
Over a span of three years, LEDtronics has also worked with the Pasadena Department of Public Works for the installation of new post-top LED streetlights for the replacement of high-wattage metal-halide bulbs—part of an ongoing capital improvement project to add, refurbish or replace approximately 54 miles of street light systems around the city.
“With our post-top LED units, the city can expect to save up to 80% in energy consumption after the replacement,” said Greg Krymer of LEDtronics. “The post-top LED lamps use only 27 watts, compared to the metal-halide bulbs being replaced that consume 100 watts, with an additional 30 watts for their ballast.”
After the success of the initial six beta-test post-top LEDtronics units installed on the residential Daisy Street in the city’s eastern district, within months the first major LED streetlight installation was completed in its western district. Approximately 50 of the LEDtronics LED30MH-600-TPW-002 lamps were installed in decorative globe fixtures atop 15-ft cement utility poles along the northern section of Orange Grove Boulevard—the thoroughfare where the annual Rose Parade starts. In addition to estimated annual energy cost savings of up to 80%, the city anticipates decreased maintenance demand and a much longer lifespan — up to 50,000 hours of continuous operation, according to Mr. Krymer.
Other expected LED benefits include much greater ambient clarity, which improves traffic and pedestrian safety, less light intrusion into surrounding homes and businesses, less light pollution into the night sky, as well as reduced carbon emissions. The LED product contains no mercury, lead or other known disposal hazards, and LEDs come on instantly without run-up time or restrike delay.
In early 2011, as part of the general project to implement pedestrian and transportation enhancements within Pasadena’s historic 1920s Beaux-Arts Civic Center, metal-halide lights were replaced with approximately 90 LEDtronics 27-watt post-top lamps along the streets surrounding the recently renovated and retrofitted City Hall building, most prominently along Holly Street.
Subsequently, LEDtronics LED lamps were installed in newly erected fixtures or had replaced existing street lights in the city’s eastern neighborhoods—Lakewood Place, Carmelo Avenue, Del Rey Avenue, Dudley Street and Mountain Street. By summer 2012, approximately 200 of the LEDtronics post-top LED street lamps had been installed around Pasadena, replacing the now outdated 100-watt MH lamps. This represents an estimated annual energy savings of more than 75,000 kilowatt hours, based on 10 hours of nightly operation.
With a growing population of over 145,000 and having been recognized by Popular Science magazine as “one of the 50 greenest cities in the nation,” Pasadena is fast becoming “an environmental advocate and a leader in environmental compliance and protection,” according to its Environmental Charter. As it has done with other forward-looking cities around California, LEDtronics has become a reliable partner for progress in achieving the goals of Pasadena’s visionary 2006 Green City Action Plan.