Echelon asks: Hello lamp-post, whatcha knowin'?

The city of San Francisco, along with local utility company Pacific Gas & Electric, is testing out smart street lights that can be monitored remotely using LonWorks technology from Echelon using everyone's favorite gadgets for demonstration purposes, the Apple iPhone.

The idea is to help the city reduce its electricity bill: apparently up to 40 percent of the power bill for any given metropolis goes to lighting up streets and sidewalks. The city of Oslo in Norway has managed to cut electricity use by 62 percent with its intelligent outdoor lighting system, and it expects a return on investment in five year.

Aside from Echelon, the vendors participating in the demonstration are BetaLED (which provides the fixtures) and Lighting Systems (a system distributor).

The lights are installed on Turk Street (between Taylor and Jones), which is in the city's Tenderloin district.

Here's what one of these newfangled street lights looks like:

Photo courtesy of Echelon

Here's a page with information and a video about how the streetlights work.