One of the first things home owners do to save energy is swap out traditional light bulbs for compact fluorescent or LED bulbs.

But this simple switch is not limited to the home.

Some very important lights in South Bend are saving some serious money.

The city has more than 205 intersections, add up all the individual lights and that is over 4000 bulbs.

"The reason that we changed the bulbs is becauseincandescent bulbs are inefficient. By changing an incandescent bulb toan LED fixture, you save roughly 85 percent of the energy,” Rob Nichols said.

"We are saving roughly $186,000 a year in just
electricity costs. If you multiply that all out to what we have now we
were well over 2 million dollars a year in just electricity for the
incandescent bulbs, now we are about 15 percent of that roughly,” he
said.

That 85 percent reduction in energy use means saving serious money, but that is not where the savings stop.

"We also save a lot in the maintenance that's not
calculated into our saving but before our guys had to go out and change
every incandescent bulb in the entire city every year, now with the LEDs
we don't have to change them until after ten years,” Nichols said.

These new bulbs are covered by a ten year warranty, and there is a chance that they could go much longer.

"Unlike an incandescent bulb they go out they justshut off, LED actually dim overtime. They are guaranteed to be the right brightness for ten years after that they will continue to dim but theymay last even longer fifteen to could be even twenty years for some,”
Nichols said.

While there is no guarantee the light will always be
green, you can take comfort in the fact these lights will be saving you
green while you sit on red.

If you did not notice any difference in the lights,
Nichols said there is virtually no difference in the appearance of the
LED traffic signals.