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As of last week, 72 of Victoria's 79 councils have signed up for free to be part of a standing panel of approved lights that allows councils to purchase hardware directly without going out to tender, even if it's over the Local Government Act threshold. This panel was set up to leverage the combined purchasing power of councils to achieve cost savings. We have already seen councils save hundreds of thousands of dollar on purchasing lights and thousands of council hours on developing and...

Have you heard the one about the "skyrocketing" maintenance prices of certain energy efficient lights? Or the rumour that some energy efficient lights won't be supported into the future? Well there have always been claims and counter-claims by lighting manufactures and other stakeholders in the industry about the performance of their lights and their competitors’ lights. Nearly every time these stories are mistruths being pushed by someone who has a vested interest in their own products or...

We hear a lot of conflicting information out there about which lights are allowed for use throughout Australia. There appears to be a bit of misunderstanding around terms such as "approved", "load table" and "standards". So we thought we’d explain the basics. Firstly, given we're talking about lighting technology and choices, just some background so you can be assured that our information is impartial - Ironbark does not make lights. We don’t design lights. We don’t sell lights. We do not want...

In Australia, the process for a new lighting technology to be accepted into the standard inventory of products is guarded by a rigid set of standards and requirements. Whilst this ensures that a strong level of quality is maintained, it also requires the allocation of a significant amount of time and resources. Traditionally, Australian Distribution Businesses and road authorities conduct assessments of new lighting technologies. However, with the influx of new technologies, undertaking these...

Councils around Australia know that there are massive energy, cost and greenhouse savings to be made from changing over street lights to more energy efficient alternatives. And dozens have made the switch, saving up to 70% in energy use by switching to 2x14W T5 or 32CFL technologies. According to some pundits it is just a matter of time before LEDs overtake all other light sources as the best, longest lasting and most efficient light in Australian streets - this may be true but we've heard these...

To assist councils in managing the complex procurement landscape associated with the transition to energy efficient street lighting, Ironbark Sustainability has formed a partnership MAV Procurement to support councils from the start to the end of a bulk change program. As a key part of this process we will be conducting a tender to establish a panel of suppliers to provide energy efficient street lighting hardware (energy efficient luminaires and associated PE cells). Even if your council is not...