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

Choosing the Right Street Light Fixtures. Mount Types and Wiring Reviewed

The light quality produced in streets lighting depends on theused. Use better LEDs and get better light, no question about it. The first steps, however, are; how much light?, how will I mount it? and how does it wire up?

LED Light companies have invented lots of mounting brackets for shoebox light fixtures. Examples of light fixture mounts types used include direct mount, slip fit, flood mount, yoke mount among others. These light fixtures must be among your priorities while thinking about improving your street illumination. The light fixture mounts may also determine the angel beam and area illumination of the street or preference area. Most of these fixture mounts are made with joints to increase flexibility and target the light where you wan tit. You must understand the desired distribution type for your street or pathway. Also, you must understand the width of the road under illumination in case you desire better outcomes while using thesemounts.

Mount Options

i. Direct mount or arm mount

Arm mounts can also be called direct horizontal straight mounts used inon round or square poles. They are commonly used on an already fixed pole. Horizontal straight arm mounts can easily be used since they can be fixed directly square poles without an adapter. However, round poles may require an adapter to attach the light fixtures. Direct mounts have an estimated diameter of approximately 3.2 inches wide and can be used to install more than one light fixture on a single pole.

Most straight arm fixtures are light and can hold light fixtures of up to 110 Ibs. Arm mounts are robust and stress-resistant to withstand harsh environmental conditions, for example, extreme cold and heat. Arm mounts can cover a switch-box size junction box for the lighting fixture increasing its versatility. Direct mounts are normally fixed with 2-5 screws to ensure increased firmness of the LED light fixture to the pole. Other horizontal arm mounts can be fixed using bolts that enhance gripping onto the pole. However, bolts require additional nuts to firmly fix the mount and LED fixtures to the pole.

ii. Slip fit mount

Slip fit mounts are round and can only be used on round poles or round arms from square poles. Theup and down or left to right providing numerous options for the angle of illumination. The slip fit bracket is made with a range of diameters usually 2-8 inches. Therefore, you can fix it on poles with a diameter in that range and tighten down using screws. It is essential to understand the pole diameter before purchasing the light mount to ensure compatibility.

The mounts can have multiple joints enabling you to alternate the connectedor street light. The outcome is an alteration of street illumination areas. Slip fits can be used on square poles if they are combined with wall brackets increasing their efficacy. They also allow the installation of the internal junction boxes protecting the electrical connections around the light fixture. Slip fit mounts allow completeness of connections beyond the external surfaces thereby protecting them from extremely harsh conditions, for example, thunderstorms.

iii. Yoke mount

Yoke mounts, also called Trunnion mounts, are normally fixed on walls and ceilings. However, they can also be fixed in square poles and bull horns. One side of the mount is attached to the wall while the other holds the LED light fixture. They support different shoebox lights and are adjustable to allow different angles of illumination. Yoke mounts can be used for sign, accent, and spotlighting. However, these mounts require the fixation of an external junction box for the light fixture because of their make. Yoke mounts have a provision of using an adapter in case they do not perfectly fit on the pole or the wall. They permit the installation of more than one light fixture on a pole or wall. These adapters can be in a square or circular form. The round adapters are normally 3 by 4-inch dimensions while square adapters are 4 by 5 inches.

Adapters are also made from various metal elements, for example, bronze, silver, gold among others giving you a priority. They also come in different colors like black, grey, white, and shiny. Sometimes, adapters and poles may be incompatible because of size indifferences. The advantage of these mounts is the presence of slip fitters. Slip fitters come in ranges of 2 to 3 inches in diameter and are used on poles having more than 2-inch diameter. The slip fitter is manufactured with circular rotating abilities to enable adjustment of LED lights attached. Furthermore, slip fitters can be used in combination with adapter brackets enhancing arm mounts' efficacy.  These not only enhance your illumination capacity but also improve the overall area appearance.

iv. Flood mount

can have wall, square, or round pole installation options. These are fixed by screws to the attachment surface and the LED light Fixture is attached on the other end. Unlike the Yoke mount, the flood mount is attached at a fixed angle and does not permit angle adjustment. However, it does not require a junction box and is aesthetically pleasing thus improving your illumination experience. The flood mount has a robust construction with easy installation increasing its suitability for use. It provides an option for the provision of a switch box-sized junction box that can control the degree of illumination to the area in focus.

However, there is no angle adjustment offered to the mount offering a limitation to the illumination area. Flood mounts are suitable for LED lighting applications on roads, pathways, and parking lots. These flood mounts support LED fixture cables of up to 6 feet from the junction box. Your electrician is responsible for identifying a suitable and secure place for fixing the junction box in the house. Also, they are responsible for identifying safe places along the streets for the fixation of these junction boxes. You must endeavor to verify the shape and size of the flood mounts before purchase to prevent frustrations of the pole to mount incompatibility.are one of the best mounts to consider for your street lighting.

Wiring Up LED Street Lights

i. Street lights are typically inside the fixture. Parking lot lights are typically outside and connectors left in pole

Street lights are typically inside the fixture that is connected to the power source through complete wiring. Interconnection of the lighting system is required consistent lighting control, or plainly put; they have to be in the same outlet to be controlled together. Parking lot lights are typically wired outside and connectors are left inside the pole.  Neither is better, just more of what is typically found out there.   Effective wiring helps to link the connectors with the light fixtures and power sources. These are altered at a breaker to suit the electrical energy and the environmental condition prevailing. Wiring systems are essential for interconnecting different lights to the same grid. 

Also note that lights may be controlled by

ii. Either can go either way

Electrical wiring in the mount fixtures can go either way from the power source to the LED light fixture. Wiring is fundamental in completing circuits for the LED light fixtures on different mounts. The completeness of this wiring is essential to prevent short circuits and preserve the light fixtures. The wiring system is fundamental for connecting LED drivers to the light fixtures. These LEDs have a printed wiring board made of aluminum because of the high transfer properties. Therefore, there is a rapid response from light commands to light fixtures. Furthermore, wiring is necessary for transferring communication commands from and to the junction box to alter lighting quality.

iii.  Don't forget Solar Street Lights

There are solar street lights also calledavailable. These are ideal in odd places where you need a little extra light. We dont recommend to stop using power, the cost of batteries still makes solar more expensive but that bridge is being narrowed quickly as batteries get cheaper and regular power bills get more expensive.

References

https://www.ledlightexpert.com/LED-Parking-Lot-Lights-with-Slip-Fitter-Mount_c_47.html

https://www.creelighting.com/products/outdoor/accessories-outdoor/

https://www.any-lamp.com/blog/direct-and-indirect-lighting1