How cautious are you about trusting new products on the market?
Yes, it’s smart to take your time and ensure you’re making a wise investment. But, being too careful means you miss out on the dynamic LED (Light Emitting Diode) street lighting solutions that are becoming the industry norm.
The LED street lighting system is an innovative and energy efficient technology you should devote your attention to. Cities and businesses can’t miss this out because it can determine their future financial outcomes and most productive energy management levels. LED street lights are designed to counter many challenges that private companies and governments are faced with, such as:
- • Saving Energy and Money – Energy Efficiency
- • Decreasing Environmental Pollution
- • Decreasing Maintenance, Servicing, HR and Time Management Costs
These three aspects already make outdoor LED lights better than traditional street lights that use HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and other Sodium bulbs that we’re all used to. When you have to invest your capital you’ll still feel it’s risky to change your street lighting system, right?
We need to transform the old street lighting infrastructures with new lighting technologies and smart data driven applications. This blog explains why this would be an important step forward towards energy efficient future.
Are LED Street Lights More Energy Efficient?
An effective lighting system will draw low amounts of Watts while it gives a high output of lumens. This is the brightness of the light the bulb emits. How do you know LED street lights are more efficient?
LED lights are actually popular because of this feature. With ordinary bulbs you can get a brightness (lumens) of 250+ while the bulb draws 25 Watts (W). Retrofit the bulb with a LED lamp and you will get the same lumens by only using 4W.
So, HPS lights aren’t really energy efficient to begin with. When you use many of them in a large network you draw huge amounts of energy. Obviously, this is not an effective way of using the energy generated in cities and municipalities. Wasting energy is a declining trend globally. LED lighting and smart technologies can contribute to better utilization of energy and generate huge savings.
Why stick to traditional lighting systems when LED lights clearly offer a better solution that will save you both energy and money?
How Do Illumination and Brightness Compare?
Will your LED lights offer enough illumination? After all it doesn’t make sense to save on power costs if you can’t enjoy the same benefits as with traditional street lights. LED street lights won’t disappoint in this section either.
You can compare different light sources in terms of how much light the unit produces (illumination). LED lights increase energy efficiency because they make it easier for the human eye to perceive items than HPS lights do.
This is thanks to a few unique features of LED lighting:
- ○ Have high CRI (Color Rendering Index) values. This determines how closely colors resemble what youwould see in normal, natural light:
- • Sodium globes have a 25 CRI rating
- • LED lights can have a CRI rating of up to 95 out of 100
- ○ LED lighting has a wider variety of wavelengths. This allows the human eye to perceive more colors and details.
Will LED Lights Last Longer?
Broken bulbs that need to be replaced accumulate high replacement costs and take up much of maintenance teams’ time.
With LED lighting you’ll spend fewer maintenance hours solving such problems. LED lights have an estimated lifetime of anything between 35 000 hours and 502 000 hours. This is vastly longer than any other HPS bulb where the maximum time you can expect is 24 000 hours. LED lights minimum lifespan is clearly longer than a HPS bulb maximum durability. Why do we still doubt the value LED lights add to any street lighting system?
How Beneficial is Smart Technology Integration?
One should consider the opportunity cost of using traditional street lighting systems. Yes, it’s easier to keep to what you know since you don’t have to train yourself and your peronnel to manage the new LED street lighting technology. However, the benefits you miss out by not impementing outdoor LED lights may be detrimental in the long run.
LED street lights are designed to be part of a Smart Technology system. This allows individuals or cities to:
- • Manage the lights remotely in terms of brightness. Maintenance teams don’t travel to light poles but manage them from a central office.
- • Be notified of problems in real-time. Maintenance teams can handle problems quickly. There’s no time or resources wasted by manually looking for system faults.
- • Enable 100% illumination only when cars or individuals come closer to the pole. Saving energy through motion sensors and dimming functionalities. Full brightness is used when it is truly needed.
- • LED light poles can serve as part of a smart city’s wireless network. They act as Wi-Fi hot spots. Drivers can also use them to access the city’s pool of information to search for parking or other city-wide services (e.g. city operators can use special sensors attached to the pole to gather environmental data).
These lighting features save you time and money. They also improve a city’s infrastructure which draws citizens, businesses and tourism. In a developing society it’s important to implement faster, more effective solutions. It’s the only way you, your business or city stay relevant. If you want to outperform others you must adjust in all areas where technology supplies new – better – options, such as smart LED street lighting.
Which is the Most Reliable Option?
Of course you can only invest capital in a lighting system that is guaranteed to be reliable. You can’t take the risk of having to install another new system in the near future. The outdoor lighting system you implement now must work for years to come.
LED street lights are proven to be highly dependable. We have already mentioned their documented lifespan. Sodium lights can’t keep up with how LED lights perform. In addition, the market is filled with a variety of LED options to suit unique street light applications. You’ll find plenty of durable LED options for highway areas where lights are more exposed to debris and external factors that can affect performance.
Reliability also refers to providing necessary services – in this case lighting – at all times. The remote management of LED outdoor lighting systems will assist you greatly in this department. You can see the moment a light malfunctions, so you can immediately address the problem.
And here’s the best part. You can make LED lights even more reliable by using solar panels to generate power – smart solar LED street lights. This means your street lights aren’t reliant on the electrcial grid. Even when the power of the city malfunctions, the LED street lighting system will continue to operate on solar energy. This article compares solar LED and traditional HPS and Sodium bulbs.
Learn more how modern, smart technology improves solar LED street lighting.
There’s really no contest. LED street lights clearly outperform traditional lighting options. The better alternatives that make it a popular solution for private and indoor usage must now be considered for outdoor use as well. If a new invention offers progression, why not benefit from it? Check out below how LED light applications powered by solar energy improve the street lighting industry.
