Street lights provide light to the general public when they walk through a street when they drive through a road or go on a journey via highway. Hence, they are nothing less than a guiding beacon for the general public. As they remain ON for a much longer period, they consume much greater energy than residential consumers. So, there is a need to cut down this enormous energy consumption and extra cost. In this regard, LED lights are, for sure, a better alternative, as they are power efficient and provide more brightness as compared to a typical incandescent light at the same power consumption level.
Advantages of LED Street Lights
While LED lights have proven to be beneficial for residential consumers, there is a need to see how beneficial it can be for street lights. The following are some of the advantages of using LED street lights:
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Less Energy Consumption
Normally used street lights are installed with outdated technology, which consumes more energy. Such high-powered street lights do not make sense in today’s world, especially when energy scarcity is everywhere. As LED lights consume less energy than conventional lights, there is definitely a need to shift street lights towards modern LED lights. Technically, LED lights bright by 80 lumens per watt, so they will consume much less power and provide more brightness compared to commonly used bulbs in street lights.
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Long Life
The long life of LED lights is another reason which reaffirms the choice of led lights in place of typical street lights. While conventional street lights last for about 3-5 years, LED street lights are projected to be last for about 10-15 years, which clearly is a major advantage. LED street light do not die off completely even after their projected life span; instead, their luminosity gets reduced to 30% of original output.
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Color Rendering
The index of color rendering implies the light source’s ability to correctly reproduce the objects’ original colors. In light of this, an accurate index of color rendering is vital for street lights as they are not supposed to disturb the drivers. LED street lights are considered to have an accurate color rendering index and thus ideal to be installed as a street light.
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Quick State Transition
Conventional street lights use fluorescent and HID lamps, which take some time to turn on completely as their glow increase with the increase in heat. At the same time, LED lights get turned on and off instantly.
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Environmentally Feasible
Conventional street lights, if they get damaged, release poisonous gases as they contain mercury and lead. However, LED street lights do not contain any such material and thus do not release any poisonous gas. In addition to this, conventional street lights glow warmly and disrupt heat into the environment. On the other hand, LED street lights are advocates of reducing carbon emissions as they disrupt heat and do not contribute to rising carbon emissions. Nevertheless, LED street lights are environmentally feasible as they do not cause any harm to the environment.
Because street lights consume much more energy than residential consumers consume, there should be something to reduce this burden over public money. Moreover, when the world’s energy resources are shrinking, and energy shortage has started taking the world by storm, having an outdated street lighting does not make sense, and this is where LED street lights take over. Technology experts say that if the whole of America’s street lights gets replaced with LED street lights, then America’s lighting energy consumption can be cut down to half. This estimation not just applies to America, all the rest of the countries can greatly reduce their energy consumption if they start installing LED street lights.
An article by Salah M. Al.
