Santa Clarita residents may notice some changes to the lights throughout the city, including Valencia Heritage Park, as workers begin replacing traditional lights with energy-efficient illumination.

Late last week workers were changing lights at Valencia Heritage Park to energy-efficient induction lighting in an effort to save electricity.

While many of the lights throughout the city are high-pressure sodium or metal halide lights, the city of Santa Clarita will be replacing 843 of them throughout the city with energy-efficient induction lighting, said Carla Callahan, assistant city engineer.

Santa Clarita is spending $850,000 on lighting upgrades throughout the city, which is funded with a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Energy's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Induction lights use less energy than the high-pressure sodium and metal halide lights, said Callahan. While traditional lights usually last about 24,000 hours, induction lights have a life span of 100,000 hours, she said.

Induction lights are cheaper to maintain than energy-efficient LED lights, which have to have the entire head of the light replaced at the end of their 10-year lifespan, said Callahan. Induction lights only need to have the bulbs replaced every 10 years.

Crews replacing the traditional lights use a retrofit kit to change the lighting, said Callahan.

The city expects to save 360,060 kilowatts of electricity each year, said Callahan. In addition, Southern California Edison offers discounted rates and rebates when customers switch to energy-efficient lighting.

Callahan said the rebate for the city's outdoor lighting upgrades is estimated to be $18,000, and the potential energy savings is estimated to reduce the city's electricity bill by $49,424 each year.

One of the other benefits to the lighting change is the color of the light itself, said Callahan.

"In addition to all the energy savings, cost benefits, and reduced maintenance of the new induction lighting, the lights have been well received within the community by offering a more natural white light than the yellow glow of the existing high-pressure sodium and metal halide lights we are replacing," she said.