Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani will have the streets of Islamabad lit with LED lights within six months. Gilani delivered the instructions to have LED street lights installed in Pakistan’s capital last Thursday during a presentation by the CDA, the Capital Development Authority, concerning the installation of LED lights in the city. At the presentation Gilani directed the Planning Commission deputy chairman, Dr Nadeemul Haq, and the finance minister, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, to have the legal formalities for the installation of LED streetlights in Islamabad completed within fourteen days.

The instructions are welcome news to the Capital Development Authority, an organisation that is spearheading a drive for energy efficiency and conservation in Islamabad. Knowing full well that LED lights are much more cost-effective in comparison with conventional lights, the Prime Minister’s decision to have them implemented across the city represents a major step forward in the CDA’s project. The chairman of the Capital Development Authority cheerfully concluded the meeting by asserting that the project will be complete within six months following its approval by the Planning Commission.

How will the project be financed? Faisal Sakhi Butt, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Islamabad, revealed that the Capital Development Authority will finance the project entirely from its own resources. The project will therefore not be government sponsored but instead shall be funded by the private sector. The Capital Development Authority will obtain export credit finance from Italy which will be paid for by the net savings from the city’s electricity bill after the implementation of the LED street lights. Whilst the saved money will be used to pay the bill for the implementation of the street lights, the saved energy will be diverted to the national grid. Consequently, not just Islamabad will enjoy the benefits of the switch to LED streetlights but the rest of Pakistan shall also.

The multi-billion rupees project will see 65,000 conventional streetlights in Islamabad be replaced by LED lights. It is certainly a change for the better as LED lights enjoy much longer lives, are more environmentally friendly, and have lower operational costs. The project is expected to reduce the Capital Development Authority’s electricity bills from a whopping 1.6 billion rupees to 500 million rupees.

GU10 LED Light Bulbs are designed to replace their equivalent GU10 halogen bulbs. During the ast couple of decades, halogen lighting has become the most popular form of domestic lighting for the majority of British homes. Halogen spotlights are so widely used because of their small size and flexibility for use around the home. They come in low voltage 6V or 12V and high voltage 240V versions with 20-50W power ratings giving a huge variety of options whichever room you choose to use them in.

However, halogen bulbs do have a couple of drawbacks, they are typically very power hungry and have a tendency not to last very long.

LED lights are becoming more popular for their energy-saving properties and their incredibly long life expectancy. GU10 LED Light Bulbs are the latest 12V LED spotlights with an ultra low power consumption of around 1-2 Watt – this gives a similar level of light to the equivalent halogen bulb. LED spotlights have recently come down in price making them more attractive to purchase at the outset.

A typical halogen bulb is priced at around £1 and lasts on average for 2000 hours. The equivalent GU10 LED Lights are priced at approx £5 each but last up to a staggering 100 000 hours – that’s up to 50 times longer. As they say … you do the math!

GU10 LED Light Bulbs are commonly referred to for replacement for old style halogen spotlight bulbs that have been used extensively in home lighting over the past several years. These traditional spot light bulbs are large and cumbersome, using a lot of electricity and have a habit of failing after a relatively short period of use.

It is recommended that these old-style bulbs be replaced with GU10 LED Light Bulbs that give a number of benefits first among which is the dramatic reduction energy consumption, a typical LED bulb will use on average 20% less energy than an halogen bulb.

This reduced electricity usage can result in significant cost saving on your power bills but before you rush out and replace all the lights in your house you must consider a problem that exists with GU10 LED Lights. They produce a bright light which provides a pleasant mood for any room in the house but the light from a GU10 LED Light Bulb tends to be very directional which means that they are most suited for use as spot lights at present until this problem is ironed out.

This focussed lighting effect means that there is a chance that you may experience some dark spots in a room that is exclusively lit using GU10 LED Light Bulbs. A solution to get around this problem is to combine the LED lights with a selection of halogen lights to ensure a more even illumination throughout the room.