Lighting Applications: Common Area Lighting
Common areas (such as streets, roadways, parking lots, parks and
pedestrian walkways) have long been the territory of metal halide (MH)
and high–pressure sodium (HPS) light sources. While MH and HPS have been
in use for many years and have well-documented performance
characteristics, they are energy-inefficient and have deep fundamental
flaws. That makes all common areas perfect candidates for LED and
Induction lighting technology.
Common Area Lighting Problems:
- Large number of lights and very high electricity cost
- Increasing demand by the public for upgraded safety considerations
- Wear and tear caused by harsh environmental conditions
- High maintenance costs due to height and location of lights, especially over public roadways
- Growing community pressure to implement "full cut-off" solutions to minimize glare and light pollution
- Current lighting unable to produce high levels of desired, safe white light
LED and Induction Lighting Solutions and
Benefits:
- Highly efficient light source, potentially reducing electricity consumption by 60% or more
- Lower optical losses, higher luminaire efficacy, and more uniform distribution of light across the
- target area leading to a safer overall environment
- Durable–can endure the harsh outdoor elements
- Highly reliable light longevity–lasting up to 100,000 hours or more, greatly reducing overall
- maintenance costs
- Dark Sky compliant–more precise cutoff of backlight and uplight
- Available in a variety of ‘white light' color temperatures from 'warm' to 'cool'
LEDs
in Action:
"The City of Ann
Arbor is installing LED streetlights in order to reduce lighting costs
and greenhouse gas emissions. After successfully piloting an LED
replacement for our downtown 'globe lights, the city received a
$630,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to fund
retrofits for 1,400 downtown lights. This initial installation will save
the City over $100,000 per year, reducing annual greenhouse gas
emissions by 267 tonnes CO2e. In addition, testing will continue on LED
replacements for neighborhood streetlights, with the eventual goal of
replacing all of our public lighting with LEDs. Full implementation of
LEDs would cut energy use in half and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
2,200 tonnes CO2e annually. [Excerpt from Ann Arbor's City Report]
