several things you need to know about LED street light

In the vein of the city, street light is like a bright star, in every night, for people to dispel the darkness, guarding the safety of travel. It is not only the city's lighting bear, but also a city's civilization and progress of vivid testimony. In recent years, LED street light as an innovative product in the field of lighting, with unique advantages, gradually emerged in the market, becoming the first choice for many projects. Below, we will focus on LED street lights, from a variety of dimensions in-depth discussion.
 

What is LED street light

LED street light is an outdoor lighting device that uses light-emitting diodes (LED) as its light source. Light emitting diodes are solid-state semiconductor devices, with the characteristics of directly converting electrical energy into light energy. Compared with traditional street lights, LED beads are not only compact, luminous efficiency is significantly ahead, and has a long service life. The light-emitting module, which is composed of many LED beads, becomes the core light-emitting component of the LED street light.

LED street lights are usually installed at the top of 5-15 meter high poles and can illuminate a wide range of areas, including roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and all types of outdoor public areas. In traffic scenarios, LED street lights can provide drivers with a clear view of road conditions, effectively reducing the probability of traffic accidents at night; in residential areas, creating a safe and comfortable nighttime travel environment; in large commercial parking lots, it is very convenient for car owners to find parking spaces and park their vehicles. Take a large logistics park as an example, after the introduction of LED street lights, the park's night operation efficiency increased by 20%, the incidence of traffic accidents reduced by 30%, fully demonstrating the important value of LED street lights in practical applications.
 

Types of LED street lights

Modular design LED street light

Modular LED street light adopts the innovative LED modular design concept. The significant advantage of this design is that the modules can be freely dismantled without any damage to the lamp body. Plug-in waterproof connectors are common for these street lights, ensuring stable power transmission even in harsh outdoor environments. The power of the module is generally between 30-60W, which is very flexible.

Take 200W SA street light as an example, it can be assembled with 4 modules or 5 modules to meet the lighting requirements of different scenarios. The plug-and-play design makes the installation of the modules quick and easy, and the subsequent replacement and maintenance work is also easier. When a module malfunctions, the maintenance personnel only need to pull out the faulty module and replace it with a new one to quickly restore the street light to normal operation. This not only greatly shortens the maintenance time and reduces the inconvenience caused by street light failures, but also significantly reduces maintenance costs and improves maintenance efficiency in large-scale street light maintenance scenarios. For example, in a city's street light renovation project, the use of modular LED street lamps, single maintenance time from the original 2 hours to 30 minutes, annual maintenance costs reduced by 40%.
 

Full die-cast street lights

Full die-casting street lamps, from the name can be seen, all parts of the lamp shell are made of die-casting technology. The die-casting process gives the lamp shell good structural strength and heat dissipation performance, and the integrated design of the radiator and lamp shell further enhances the heat dissipation efficiency and provides a strong guarantee for the stable operation of the LED lamps.The LED light-emitting component is a single-piece type, which is fixed to the lamp body through screws together with the optical lens.

However, this design has some limitations in terms of maintenance. When the LED needs to be replaced, only the entire lamp board can be replaced, and it is not possible to replace the faulty LED components individually. This not only significantly increases the cost of maintenance, and the maintenance process is more complex, requiring specialized tools and technicians to operate, time-consuming. Nevertheless, some industry participants believe that the full die-casting street lamps with its excellent heat dissipation performance and overall stability, will still become the mainstream direction of future street lamp design. For example, in some of the highway lighting projects that require high stability of lamps and lanterns, full die-cast street lamps have been widely used due to their reliable performance.
 

Difference between LED street light and traditional street light

Energy efficiency differences

LED street lights have an outstanding performance in terms of energy efficiency and can save up to 80% of energy compared to traditional street lights. This is mainly due to the high-efficiency conversion characteristics of the LED light source, which can convert more electric energy into light energy, effectively reducing the waste of energy. Due to the limitation of technology and light source, the energy consumption of traditional street lamps has been high, and the energy utilization efficiency is far inferior to that of LED street lamps. As the world's attention to energy saving and emission reduction continues to increase, the energy-saving advantages of LED street lamps are more and more prominent, to reduce energy consumption and achieve sustainable development has played an important role.
 

Environmental performance

LED street lights have obvious advantages in environmental protection, as they contain fewer toxic elements, which are relatively less harmful to the environment in the process of production, use and disposal. In contrast, traditional street lamps, such as high-pressure sodium lamps, usually contain mercury and other toxic and harmful substances, which, once improperly handled, can cause serious pollution of soil and water sources, etc. The wide application of LED street lamps can help reduce environmental pollution and protect the ecological environment.
 

Number of lights

LED street lights have high lighting efficiency. With their excellent optical design and efficient light source, they can achieve good lighting effect with lower wattage, thus reducing the number of street lights required. Due to the poor lighting efficiency of traditional street lights, more street lights are often needed to achieve the same lighting range and effect. This not only increases the procurement cost of street lights, but also raises the difficulty of installation and maintenance. For example, in a lighting project in a new industrial park, the number of street lights was reduced by 30% compared with the traditional solution, effectively reducing project costs.
 

Lifespan

LED street lights have a very long life, up to 100,000 hours when the light decay of the LED is maintained at 70%, and the failure rate of the LED driver is extremely low. This makes the overall life of an LED streetlight about six times longer than a conventional streetlight. Traditional street lights have a relatively short lifespan and need to be replaced frequently, which not only increases maintenance costs, but also consumes a lot of labor and material resources.
 

Common problems of LED street lights

Problems of protection devices

Street lights are installed outdoors for a long time and are very vulnerable to lightning strikes, so they are usually equipped with 10KV surge protection devices (SPD), which can withstand multiple small-scale surges, but every time they do so, their service life will be shortened. SPD are more likely to fail in areas with frequent lightning strikes, and they are usually connected in parallel with the streetlight so that the streetlight does not stop working immediately after they fail. However, when the next surge hits, the LED driver may fail due to surge breakdown. In order to save cost, some suppliers do not provide street lights with SPD , so buyers should pay attention to whether the street lights are equipped with surge protection devices as standard when purchasing, so as to avoid subsequent damages caused by lightning strikes. For example, in a coastal city, during the thunderstorm season, the percentage of street lights damaged by lightning without SPD was as high as 20%, while the percentage of street lights damaged by SPD was only 5%.
 

LED driver problems

LED driver is as important as the heart for street light, which is one of the core components of street light. When the LED driver fails, the streetlight usually stops working or flickers. In order to reduce the failure rate of LED drivers, it is best to use high-quality brand drivers. Quality LED drivers not only reduce the incidence of failure, but also have excellent electrical parameters such as high power factor and low harmonic distortion. High power factor can reduce the loss of reactive power, improve the efficiency of the utilization of electric energy; low harmonic distortion can avoid the pollution of the power grid, to ensure the stable operation of street lights.
 

How to choose the right LED street light

Wattage matching

When choosing LED street lights, the wattage should be matched reasonably according to the height of the pole and the covered area. Generally speaking, low wattage street lamps around 10W are suitable for shorter poles, which are used to illuminate areas such as sidewalks and small parking lots; while high wattage street lamps such as 100W or 120W are needed for high poles above 10 meters to meet the lighting needs of large areas such as roads. If the wattage is not selected properly, it may lead to insufficient lighting or energy waste.
 

LED driver selection

The role of LED driver is to convert AC power to DC power to provide a stable power supply for street lights, and its quality is directly related to the service life of street lights. In the selection, in addition to focusing on brand and quality, but also according to the actual demand, choose to have output lumen compensation or timed dimming and other functions of the driver. Output lumen compensation function can automatically adjust the brightness of the street light according to the changes in ambient light, to ensure the stability of the lighting effect; timed dimming function can be late at night and other traffic and pedestrian flow less time, reduce the brightness of the street light, to achieve the purpose of energy saving.
 

LED chip choice

The quality of LED chips has a great impact on the stability and brightness of the light. 3030 and 5050 chips are widely used, 3030 chips are cost-effective and suitable for cost-sensitive projects; 5050 chips are outstanding in energy management and can realize energy-efficient lighting. Choosing the right LED chip is critical to ensuring the initial performance and long-term reliability of the streetlight.
 

Optics and color temperature considerations

Optics serve to ensure an even distribution of light and can be customized to meet specific road or building needs. Different road types and usage scenarios require different light distribution, and by customizing the optics, the lighting effect can be improved and light pollution reduced. Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) determines the hue of the light, and there are cool, neutral and warm colors. In roadway lighting, neutral-colored light provides clear vision and reduces visual fatigue for drivers; in residential areas, warm-colored light creates a warm and comfortable atmosphere.
 

Color rendering index (CRI) determination

Color Rendering Index (CRI) is used to measure the closeness of the light source's color display to natural light, with an ideal value of 100. For street lighting, a CRI of 70 or so usually meets the demand, which ensures good visibility and allows people to distinguish the colors and shapes of objects clearly without consuming too much energy.
 

Installation points of LED street light

Preliminary preparation

Before installing LED street lights, it is important to read the manufacturer's instruction manual carefully to fully understand the installation requirements and precautions. This will not only ensure the safety of the installation process, but also give full play to the performance of the street light. At the same time, prepare the required tools and materials, such as screwdrivers, wrenches, wires and so on.
 

Unpacking and inspection session

Carefully unpack the street light and conduct a thorough inspection of the light body and all parts to see if there is any damage caused during transportation. The inspection includes whether there are cracks in the lamp shell, whether the lamp beads are intact, whether the connectors are loose, etc. If any problem is found, it should be communicated with the supplier in time to solve the problem, so as to avoid any problem in the subsequent installation process.
 

Steps to fix the mounting bracket

Use screws to fix the mounting bracket on the street light and adjust it to a suitable tilt angle. The tilt angle should be adjusted according to the installation position of the street light and the lighting demand to ensure that the light can be effectively and evenly distributed to improve the lighting effect.
 

Wiring operation requirements

Pass the wires safely through the designated channel and connect them to the street light. Ensure that the connectors and external power cords are securely connected and secure all splices to the junction box or knife gate switch. Before connecting wires, make sure all connections are secured to avoid electrical accidents. At the same time, pay attention to the specification and quality of the wires and choose the wires that meet the requirements to ensure the safety and stability of power transmission.
 

Final inspection and energizing process

Close the lampshade and clamp, turn on the power and check whether the street light works normally. Perform all installation and operation checks according to the instruction manual, including light brightness, light distribution, switch control and so on. Ensure that the street light can operate normally before completing the installation work.

LED street light is gradually replacing traditional street light and becoming the first choice of outdoor lighting by virtue of its high efficiency and energy saving, environmental protection and durability. When choosing and installing LED street lights, fully consider all aspects of the factors, to ensure that the street lights play out the best performance, have a longer service life. We hope that this article can help you in the selection and use of LED street lights, so that LED street lights can better serve people's lives.