Ottawa Hills is experimenting with high-efficiency streetlights as a way to trim costs.

The village has replaced a high-pressure-sodium lamp at the intersection of Indian Road, Forestview Drive, and Talmadge Road with a light-emitting diode version. Across Forestview, the high-pressure-sodium lamp has been swapped out for another high-efficiency form of lighting called an induction fixture.

Village manager Marc Thompson said both of the high efficiency lights cast whiter light than the high-pressure-sodium lamps. He said if the village did switch, the LEDs seemed to be preferred. He added that a decision on retrofitting the village's almost 500 streetlights is not close.

Street lighting costs the village about $29,000 annually, and the LED supplier, Relume Technologies of Oxford, Mich., maintains that could be lowered to $7,000 with its lights. Because the LEDs have a longer service life than high-pressure sodium, maintenance costs could be trimmed by another $7,000.

Sodium lamps last six to seven years, compared with about 10 years for an LED, Mr. Thompson said.

In other Ottawa Hills news, the $450,000 storm-sewer improvement project under way at scattered sites is expected to be done by the end of February, Mr. Thompson said. At some sites, the lines are being replaced and at others they are receiving a plastic liner. Twenty-two percent of the project is being financed by a state grant and another 22 percent by a zero-interest state loan.

First Published January 4, 2012, 5:00 a.m.