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Town's street lights on speed dial

Residents of a German village can turn on a street light like they would a reading lamp: whenever they need to.

Dörentrup, located 320 kilometres west of Berlin, has adopted an energy-saving program that lets someone use a cellphone to turn on a street light by dialling the code number found on the lamppost.

The light stays on for about 15 minutes before automatically switching off.

The service, called Dial4Light, is free for the village's 90,000 residents.

It might sound like a bright idea, but don't expect to see this in Toronto anytime soon.

"Individual control of an individual street light is not something on our radar," said Rick Cook, general manager of Toronto Hydro's street light division. "I guess that works in that little village. ... However, in a large metropolis like Toronto, it might not be viable."

There are about 160,000 street lights in the city.

Toronto Hydro is researching and testing new energy-efficient street lighting and control technology at 12 sites around the city under the ALAMP (Adaptive Lighting Asset Management Program), which launched in 2007. Cook said they hope to see research completed by the end of the year and a decision about its implementation made in 2010.

Several years ago, Dörentrup started turning off its street lights at night because it could not afford the electricity bill.

Dial4Light launched about a year ago after a local man came up with the idea of on-demand lighting.

The system was developed by officials in a county west of Dörentrup called Lemgo.

Dial4Light is believed to have reduced annual carbon dioxide emissions by 11 four-person households.

Though interesting, this kind of technology does not reflect the culture in our city, said University of Toronto professor Danny Harvey. "We put the lights on and leave them on," he said.

Harvey, who specializes in energy efficiency, said using cellphones as remotes sounds impractical.

"What if someone doesn't have a cellphone? I don't have a cellphone."

Instead, the professor said he was curious to see how effective installing motion detectors on street lights would be.

Regardless, we shouldn't be focusing our attention on street lights, Harvey said, adding DVD players and television sets are the main issue du jour.

"TV use is becoming the ... electricity-guzzling consumer product," he said. "There should be a limit on the allowable use of TVs."

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