New lights for tennis courts turned off in Hermosa Beach

The city turned off the new tennis court lights behind the community center last Monday, and it’s unclear when they will be back on. Tennis players can still play during the day, but instead of volleying under the lights until 10 p.m., as is the normal schedule, the courts have been closed at 7 p.m. and will be for the foreseeable future.

At issue are the new lights themselves, which were installed over the summer. Some tennis players say the new lights are dimmer than the old lights, but city officials say that’s not so.

As part of its long-term effort to become more energy efficient, the city used a $108,000 Federal Recovery Act Grant issued through the state energy commission to pay for replacing old 1000-watt lights with more efficient new 400-watt lights, both at the tennis court as well as in the downtown parking structure, said Public Works Director Frank Senteno.

“We replaced the lights with a lower wattage light and we were able to provide the same level of illumination,” Senteno said. “It’s a different light. It’s a white light. It’s a completely different level of illumination, where the other one was more like yellow. This is white and it’s more reflective. So you get more light, so to speak.”

Senteno likened it to replacing a 100-watt incandescent light bulb in a home with a 25-watt LED light. “There’s a significant amout of savings and energy, and yet you are producing the same amount of light,” Senteno said.

The new lights at the Hermosa Beach Community Center tennis courts were installed beginning on about June 21. After the lights were installed on two of the four lower public courts, Bill Hein, an avid tennis player who has worked in the lighting business for 30 years, said he took light readings to test both the old lights versus new ones.

Gauging foot candles, the unit of measurement used in the lighting industry, Hein used a handheld light meter to measure about 38 foot candles at the center of the courts under the old lights. The new lights measured far less— about 15 foot candles, he said.

At the time, Hein said he called the city and asked that the project be slowed down and investigated. Hein wasn’t the only one to complain. Joe Testa, a tennis instructor who pays $550 a month to the city for use of the courts, said the new lights provide less than adequate lighting.

“The new fixtures cast a shadow down the middle of the court and reflect as much light off the court as they do on the court,” Testa wrote in a letter to the public works department.

Testa, like fellow tennis instructor Adam Burt, has been forced to abandon his tennis lessons in the evenings.

“Down the middle of the court, the lighting got worse,” Burt said after wrapping up his tennis lessons for the day last week. “It’s definitely brighter around the outside of the court.”

Like Hein, Senteno said he and staff, as well as the vendor and light manufacturer, also took light readings using handheld light meters. But they only took light readings directly below the light fixtures at the base of the pole, and the light levels were found the same between the old lights and new ones, Senteno said.

“Typically you measure the light at its source,” Senteno explained. “We took photos before and after, and we can’t tell the difference. I think the white lighting is an improvement.”

Senteno, who said he interviewed people playing tennis under the new lights and heard no complaints, said that the tennis instructors complaining have higher standards of lighting that aren’t realistic for free, recreational courts.