What All Things You Need to Consider Before Retrofitting the Existing Street Lighting System?
Choosing to upgrade to an LED street lighting system not only enhances the performance and quality of the lighting but also energy efficiency. In recent times, people are heavily relying on LED lighting for widespread applications. However, you can’t blindly refurbish, especially in the case of street lighting applications where a safe environment is a priority. Instead, you need to do the planning and have to consider various things before the system installation. Would you like to know what all things you need to consider before retrofitting the existing street lighting system? This post discusses the same.
6 Factors to Consider When Evaluating LED Lighting for Street Applications
Selecting an efficient LED lighting system for street applications involves a wide range of considerations. All these need to take into account the uniformity of light.
- Luminance Level and Uniformity: One of the important tasks is to define the luminance level and uniformity of the lighting. Many times, luminance influences the contrast in brightness between an object and its background. For instance, if the street is brighter, a darker background gives the visual comfort to the viewer’s eye. Otherwise, the viewer can’t recognize an object in the surroundings. Adequate uniformity is essential for the visual comfort and performance of the user. Termed as longitudinal uniformity ratio, it is the ratio between minimum and average luminance level.
- Glare Limitation: The degree of glare limitation is another important consideration taken into the design scheme. Glare is nothing but the visual discomfort, which occurs due to high luminance. It can be divided into two types- discomfort glare and disability glare. Disability glare is not considered as a strong factor as it impairs object vision without causing discomfort. Discomfort glare is one common factor occurring due to an unplanned light scheme.
- Color Quality: To maintain the color quality of the lighting system, it is important to define Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), and Color Rendering Index (CRI). Both terms influence the efficacy, quality, and actual performance of the lighting system. CCT describes the color appearance of white lights, whereas CRI is a measurement of artificial light in terms of its effect on the color appearance. CRI 70 and 80 are most commonly used for road and street lighting applications.
- Geometric Parameters: For geometric parameters, you need to consider both the actual lighting geometry and certain road configuration aspects. When it comes to road configurations, you should consider parameters such as the road surface, the dimension of the surface that lights up, the number of traffic lanes on the roads, and many more. These parameters have a direct impact on lighting solutions. The geometry of a lighting solution includes an arrangement of luminaires on the road, height of the luminaire, pole distance from the edge of the roadway, and more.
- Surge Protection and Over-voltages: Some standard LED drivers are designed to withstand over-voltages ranging from 2kV to 4kV. However, street lighting applications are subjected to higher degrees of voltage fluctuations, which can cause higher current and premature aging of LEDs. This results in the reduced service life of LEDs also decreased economic benefits. Therefore, it is important to add a high-quality surge protector appropriately rated for street applications.
- Energy Consumption: For calculating the energy consumption of different lighting solutions, it is important to evaluate the system power of the product and the installation. The power consumption of a luminaire is the total energy consumed by components. For evaluating the power consumption of installation, you need to consider two different circumstances:
- In the case of refurbishment, you need to focus on the annual energy consumption indicator and the system power of the product.
- In the case of a new installation, the Power Density Indicator (PDI) and Annual Energy Consumption Indicator (AECI) are used to evaluate the system power of the installation.
LED technology has opened the doors for various widespread applications owing to the beneficial features it offers. Among them, the street lighting application is important as many cities across the globe seek to improve night visibility and reduce the cost and energy consumption. The challenges involved in street lighting applications require designers to consider all the above-mentioned factors. Whatever the reason, if you are looking for an LED lighting system for your next project, then make sure you must get it done from a reputed industry-leader such as E2 Lighting USA.
