LED Street Light Buyers Guide

LED Street Lights Buyers Guide

What Are LED Street Lights?

LED Street light is a type of light composed of a light-emitting diode (LED). These LED-equipped lighting elements are usually installed on top of a pole to illuminate sidewalks, roadways, parking areas, and other exterior areas such as shipyards. These infrastructure construction units assist in guaranteeing safety in areas where they are installed. Based on their application, some manufacturers refer to LED street lights as LED road lighting fixtures.

LED street lights are rapidly replacing the traditional street lights that some of us grew up seeing around our neighborhoods. This trend is primarily attributed tooffering more benefits than their traditional counterparts. For instance, LED lights do not have filaments that can quickly burn out hence their extremely long lifespan. LED street lights are also environmentally friendly. The lamps do not contain harmful chemicals such as mercury which can be harmful. LED street lights also provide up to 70% energy saving with no or little maintenance. LED street lights are, therefore, suitable for areas where replacing lamps is inconvenient, costly, or otherwise.

What Types Of LED Street Lights Are In The Market?

The most common types of LED street lights in the market today are street lights, high mast lights, and general flood lights. 

Street Lights

Street lights are arguably the most common type of LED street lights today. Street lights or lamps can be defined as a raised light source usually mounted on a tall pole or a lamp column. Street lights are often strategically installed on either side of the road. Sometimes, they are installed within the median to illuminate the road. Another emerging installation trend is suspending street lights on a wire above the road. Street lights provide safety at intersections and midblock locations for motorists. They also offer safety benefits to pedestrians, especially at crossing points.

High Mast Lights

is another common type of site lamp fixture used for illumination of large areas, usually from a high mounting height. High mast lights provide light for transportation, storage, safety, and pedestrian use. The typical height for poles used for mounting high mast lights is between 40 and 150 feet. Each pole is usually mounted with around four to sixteen light fixtures. High mast lighting is popularly used by ports, municipalities, and municipal authorities and in parking lots of big venues like stadiums and other sports facilities.

General Flood Lights  

General flood lights are high-powered light bulbs that provide an ample, usually outdoor, space with illumination. Flood lights are permanently fixed. They usually require a great deal of electricity. However, the use of LED flood lights has significantly helped cut down its electricity requirements. The lights are becoming extremely popular due to energy saving, cost-effectiveness, low maintenance, and long lifespan. LED flood lights also come in various shapes and purposes. Another reason why they are more preferred.

Replacing HID Lamps With LED Lights

For the longest time, our streets and other outdoor spaces relied on High-intensity discharge (HID) lamps for illumination. However, HID lamps are rapidly being replaced by more efficient LED lights. HID lamps have several shortcomings, which have been addressed in the new LED lamps. For instance,are up to 60% energy efficient compared to HID lamps. Furthermore, they require little maintenance since, unlike the HID, which utilizes gas (typically xenon), LED lights use electricity.

LED lights also generate fewer emissions, which means they are more environmentally friendly than HID lights. Another primary reason for replacing HID lights with LED is their longer lifespan. LED lights' high color rendering ability is yet another reason why people choose to replace HID lights with LEDs. Color rendering ability is a feature that enables the LED lights to resemble natural light as possible closely. The presentation of color more realistically helps pedestrians and drivers to identify different objects at night, improving their safety and that of other road users. 

Important Parameters To Consider

The following are things to consider before purchasing an LED street light:

Wattage

LED lights use fewer watts for the same amount of illumination as the traditional high-pressure sodium lamps. For instance, a 100w high-pressure sodium lamp is equivalent to a 36W LED lamp. An LED lamp of 60w is equivalent to a 150w high-pressure sodium lamp. The commonly used LED wattages are 5w, 10w, 15w, 20w, 30w, 40w, 50w, 60w, 80w, 100w, and 120w. Note that 60w or less are commonly used for LED ordinary lighting while 60w or more are used for lens or mirror. The height of the pole also influences the wattage of the LED street lamp to purchase. For instance, 10w LED street lamps are suitable for poles with a height of between 2.5 to 3 meters. 100w and 120w are best suited for poles with heights above 10 to 12 meters. The number of lanes is another factor to consider regarding the wattage of LED lamps. 

Led Driver

Led drivers are critical to LED lights, they do the heavy lifting of converting ac to dc at a stable rate. Onlywith large resistors will last the 10-20+ years of the light. Also needed must be considered before choosing a suitable Led driver. One good example is the kind of function you need for your LED Street light. Examples of these functions include output lumen compensation (OLC), timing dimming, thermistor (NTC), D4i, Dali, 0-10V, and auxiliary power supply. It is advisable to research more on these functions before choosing a Led street light.

LED Chips

LED chips majorly determine the quality of an LED light. It includes the stability and brightness of LED light. Both variables are vital for the performance of LED street lights. Several LED chips options are available in the market. The most common ones are 3030 and 5050. 3030 LED chips are best known for their higher-cost performance. 5050 LED chips, on the other hand, are a better option for an energy management contract.

Lens/Optics

LED street lights offer a wide variety of optical light distributions. The various optical light distributions are suitable for roadways, architectural, and area lighting for better light uniformity. Fortunately, several manufacturers provide customized products to their customers with special light distribution requirements. 

Correlated Color Temperature (CCT)

This is a measurement used to illustrate the relative color appearance of the LED illumination source. This measurement indicates whether a light source appears more white, yellow, or bluer. CCT is measured in kelvins. Examples are 5700K denoted as "cool", 4000K as "neutral", and 2700K as "warm."

Color Rendering Index (CRI) 

CRI is one of the essential aspects of lighting. In addition to denoting the quality of light, it also represents the ability of light to faithfully (near accurate) reproduce the color of objects. The higher the value of CRI, the better. Despite 100 being the ideal CRI, for an LED street light, a CRI of around 70 is sufficient. 

Installation of LED Lights

Certain measures should always be taken before the installation process begins. For instance, you need to read the instruction manual given by the manufacturer before embarking on the installation process. There are various installation methods to consider. One of them is as follows.

For successful LED street light installation, consider the following steps:

• After opening the outer packaging, remove the materials used to pack the lamp body and take out the lamp.
• The next step should be fastening the fitter onto the street light at the desired tilt angle using screws. 
• After loosening the buckle, uncover the upper lid of the street lamp.
• Pass the wire carefully into the street light. The M16 connector on the external power cord should be tightened. Ensure all connections to the terminal block or knife switch are secure before connecting any wires.    
• Place the lamp into the pole. Snap the cover and clips closed. Turn on the voltage and make sure the street light is operating correctly.

Application of LED Street Lights

The LED street light fixture is known for its wide range of applications. The following are a few examples:

• Expressway Lighting – Big wattages LED street lights are used for this purpose.
• Intersection Lighting – These LED street lamps are commonly used on streets and road intersections.
• Street Lighting – Different wattage lights are used for different kinds of streets (both urban and rural). 
• Square Lighting – LED floodlight and LED Area light are often preferred for square lighting. They provide illumination for people to spend more time chatting, playing, or dancing. 
• Outdoor and Logistic Area in Industry – LED Street lights are commonly used for illumination to facilitate everything that usually goes on in the large spaces in front of logistic areas and warehouses. 
• Outdoor areas such as parking lots and airports.

Smart Street Lighting Control

Smart street lights are lighting fixtures that incorporate technology like light-sensing cells, cameras, and other sensors to introduce real-time monitoring functionalities. Smart street lights are also called intelligent street lighting or adaptive lighting. 

• Dali. DALI is an abbreviation for Digital Addressable Lighting Interface. It is a two-way communication control system used for standardizing digital commands. All the components must recognize the digital commands standardized by DALI in the street lighting system. DALI also allows the grouping and controlling of devices together.
• Bluetooth. It is also necessary to enhance the energy utilization of the street lights and automate the street lights for proper automation management. The monitoring and intelligent control of the street lighting system are often centralized via Bluetooth wireless technology. 
• WIFI. Smart street lighting system uses wireless connections, making it possible to control and monitor the system remotely. Remote monitoring has helped cut down its energy costs. 
• Matter. The new zigbee standard known as Matter Smart Lighting Standard

References:

https://www.zgsm-china.com/blog/several-things-you-need-to-know-about-led-street-light.html

https://www.homequestionsanswered.com/what-is-flood-lighting.htm

https://blogs.worldbank.org/energy/led-street-lighting-unburdening-our-cities

https://energy.novascotia.ca/energy-efficiency/efficiency-and-conservation/buildings-and-appliances/led-street-lighting