Keeping a parking lot well-lit every night can be costly, especially during the winter months when daylight hours are limited. One of the most difficult issues that business owners will face is getting enough light spread throughout a parking lot. Employees, customers, and other visitors feel unsafe when walking through a poorly lit parking lot, and dark spots in parking lots can provide an environment for criminal activity. While you’re researching your options, here are some things you should know about led parking lot lighting:
Table of Contents
1) Hid vs. Led Hids
Are gas-discharge arc lamps transmitting light via an electrical current between two electrodes and ionized gas? A second gas is used to determine whether the hid lamp is sodium, mercury, or metal halide. Everything is contained within a quartz glass capsule. A ballast is required by all hids to regulate power and generate the initial electrical surge that turns on the light. Hids use less energy and produce more light than halogen bulbs, but this pales in comparison to the revolutionary led technology.
2) Pole positioning
While parking lot layouts vary greatly, almost all parking lot light fixtures are attached to tall poles. The light can more easily pool throughout the area from this vantage point. Once you’ve decided to replace your old light fixtures with led pole lights, you must decide whether to keep or replace your old poles. Because led lighting produces more light and allows for customized light distribution, you can achieve the same or better results with fewer light fixtures.
3) Replacement vs. Retrofitting
The process of adding new, improved technology to an existing system is known as retrofitting. Led retrofit kits allow you to reuse your existing light fixtures while upgrading the lighting technology. Retrofitting can be less expensive than installing new fixtures, but this is not the primary reason most people choose this option. The primary goal of retrofitting is to preserve your property’s existing aesthetics, especially if it already corresponds to your desired architectural design. When the design and layout of your current lighting system are satisfactory, but its efficiency can be greatly improved with upgraded technology, retrofit kits are an excellent choice. However, just like your light poles, your existing fixtures must be in good condition and capable of supporting led technology.
4) Optimal lighting properties for parking lot applications
There are numerous characteristics that distinguish some commercial-led parking lot lights from others. The product’s correlated color temperature (cct) or color temperature, color rendering index (cri), light distribution properties, heat distribution properties, eco-friendliness, and earned safety ratings are among these. Color temperature describes the color of a light’s glow, which can be warm or cool, ranging from warm reddish-orange to cool white or bluish. Cri ratings describe how an object appears when illuminated in comparison to how it appears in daylight. The higher the rating, the more the illuminated object resembles what it would look like in natural light.
5) Use controls to improve efficiency
Led lights typically provide high-quality lighting while saving significant energy, especially when combined with adaptive control integration. Dimmability is one of the most significant advantages of led lighting; fixtures frequently include a 0-10v dimmable driver to provide this capability. Passive infrared photo/motion (PIR) sensors that detect motion and adjust light output as needed are also available. When sensors no longer detect motion, time delay controls keep lights in high mode for a predetermined amount of time, typically five minutes, before switching back to low mode. After running in low mode for the default time of one hour, the cut-off controls turn the luminaire off completely. Photocell controls, which tell luminaires when to turn on or off based on the current amount of ambient light, are another option.
When you combine all of your prospective alternatives, you have a successful adaptive control integration with sensors that prevent LED pole lights from lighting up an empty parking lot at full brightness when it isn’t essential. Having these cutting-edge controls in place boosts your energy savings and decreases light pollution.
6) Professional lighting evaluations
Led technology is constantly and rapidly improving, and the cost of commercial-led parking lot lights is falling. If you’re thinking about switching to led lighting but aren’t sure if the cost savings justify what could be a significant investment, schedule a free, no-hassle professional lighting assessment. Based on an evaluation of your current system and projected cost estimates for our recommended lighting solutions, a lighting expert will perform a comprehensive cost savings analysis and ROI timetable. They will also be able to create a physical layout to meet any specific lighting level requirements, such as the average maintained foot candles required to hit the ground.
7) Led parking lot lights increase security and safety
The key objective should always be to prioritize a customer’s safety. Because parking lots are naturally lighted throughout the day, companies must compensate after the sunsets. Parking lot buildings that are well-lit improve visibility. Accidents involving cars and pedestrians may be avoided with enhanced visibility, decreasing liability risk for owners.
Bright illumination in parking lots might also help to reduce crime rates. People avoid parking lots in general because poorly-lit parking lot buildings have been a hotspot for criminal activity. Poor illumination also inhibits security cameras from adequately capturing video. Led lighting may deter criminal activities while also allowing security cameras to record well due to equal light distribution, which eliminates dark areas and gaps.
8) Technological advancement
Led lighting is directed, as opposed to hid lighting, which only concentrates on one location and frequently results in uneven illumination. This means they may be “aimed” to concentrate a greater concentration of main light to a specific region. Using directional optics, businesses and institutions near residential areas may create a safer atmosphere while not shedding unwanted light on surrounding houses. They are also “dark-sky compatible.” lighting may be controlled remotely from a central command center or portable mobile devices using smart controls. Dimming the controls may also conserve energy and adjust different groups of lights depending on specific demands such as commercial requirements and time of day or season to maximize when and where light is most required while decreasing consumption when demand is low. For control and monitoring, outdoor lighting controllers build their wireless communication networks. It can operate independently even if the network is down, and it also provides real-time data such as energy usage and failure alarms.
