A local arena made the switch to LED lights. Terry Ettinger tells us what they are saving in energy costs, and what the future of LED lighting holds.

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The light-emitting diode is reaching new heights, like the ceiling of the hockey arena in the Onondaga County War Memorial.

"LED is solid-state lighting, so it's basically a computer chip that emits light," said Amy Casper, CEO Ephesus Technologies.

Ephesus Technologies installed 147 LED light fixtures in the hockey rink that actually provide more light than the 168 old light fixtures they replaced.

"We are producing lights for warehousing applications, arena lights, and municipalities. We have kits that can go into the decorative light fixtures to save energy," explained Casper.

The LED lighting in this building will reduce the electric power costs by 75 percent, but with each unit being a separate unit controlled through an iPad, operators can use just the lights they need for a particular event.

"We don’t have to run all the lights all the time, so there’ll be some savings there when some of these other venues come in, like the cheerleading competition last weekend. They had one side of the arena lit up so you don’t have to run all the lights all the time," noted Casper.

Even if you left the LED lights on all the time, they would last three to twelve years, meaning that fewer lights are replaced less often.

Casper said, "When you calculate the payback time, you also have to calculate the amount of time spent on maintenance and the light bulbs. Those are key factors that are outside of our scope now, because there are no light bulbs to change, so there are no lifts you have to bring in to make the change. There are no disposal fees."