LED Street Lights vs. Traditional Street Lights

Generally, led street lights are designed differently than traditional street lights. Although these two share the same function—to provide enough light and security, they have distinctive light sources, features, and designs. With that being said, these two also carry different advantages. So we explain the difference between led street lighting and the standard type of street lights.

If you are just new to led street lamps, it is crucial to know first all of the necessary information. Below, we list the 11 tips for buying outdoor led street lights.

Why We Choose LED Street Lights

More and more people are replacing traditional street lights with street light leds. If there are not enough advantages, outdoor led street lights cannot be popular. Compared with traditional street lights, outdoor led street lights have the following advantages.

High Light Efficiency to Reduce Electricity Costs

As a third-generation light source, the light efficiency of LED chips can reach 230lm/w. On the other hand, the light efficiency of traditional high-pressure sodium light sources is only 100lm/w. Also, the power factor of the decorative led street light power supply can reach more than 95%. While the traditional high-pressure sodium lamp ballasts can reach 70% only.

The led chip is directional light-emitting with low-loss secondary light distribution. The highest luminous efficiency of led street lamps can bear about 170lm/w. The high-pressure sodium lamp light source emits 360°, and its effective light efficiency is 60-70lm/w.

Save Energy and Reduce Carbon Emissions

Based on the statistics data, traditional energy sources such as coal and oil account for more than 75% of the world’s used energy. We all know that increased carbon emissions also increase the global greenhouse effect. With the application of led street lights, you will save energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions.

led street light

Environmental-friendly

Led chips are light-emitting semiconductors that do not produce any harmful substances during operation. Meanwhile, the high-pressure sodium lamp contains sodium and tribute harmful metals. Once leaked, it will cause serious environmental pollution.

Long Life and Reduced Maintenance Cost

Compared to the lifespan of led chips, the traditional is always shorter. The street light led can last more than 50,000 hours. Most road light suppliers have also launched decorative led street light products with a 10-year warranty. On the other hand, the actual service life of high-pressure sodium lamps is only about 2 years. Not to mention that the labor cost of street light source replacement is expensive.

More Uniform Road Lighting

The led chip has a small light-emitting volume, which is convenient for the unique secondary optical design. These lenses have different light distribution curves. Led street light bulbs can make the uniformity of road lighting reach more than 0.4. However, traditional street lamps cannot provide secondary light distribution.

Lower-cost Power Supply System

Street light power supply lines require a special power supply system to distribute power. The power supply system, including the transformer, is expensive. But, lower-power outdoor led street lights can reduce the power supply system cost.

High Color Rendering Index

The color rendering index of high-pressure sodium lamps is only 20-30, while the color rendering index of LED can reach 70-90. The higher the color rendering index, the more the object’s original color can be displayed.

Smart Lighting

LED chips are semiconductors, and it has various smart lighting functions such as remote dimming, light control switches, etc. These functions can better save energy, manual operation, and maintenance costs. Solar led lights appear smarter and more convenient with these functions than traditional street lights.

Quick Start

LEDs can reach their maximum brightness in tens of nanoseconds and are unaffected by low temperatures. On the contrary, incandescent or fluorescent lighting can take too long to warm up before even turning on under low-temperature conditions.

led street light

Safer, Secure

The popularity of commercial led street lights has made city streets and public areas brighter and safer. A brighter place can effectively reduce the crime rate compared to dark places. Recent studies on crime rates in cities such as Los Angeles and New York also support this view.

Reduce White Light Pollution

According to the BBC, 99% of people in countries such as Europe, the United States, and Asia live in areas with white light pollution. When led lights were first used, they were also found to be polluted by blue light. But the design of the later lamps hinders it from happening. The secondary light distribution and dimming of led lights also effectively reduce the white light pollution of traditional lights.

LED Street Light Cost Savings Calculator

Let’s assume that a city has a road with a length of 10 kilometers. And the laying of street lights is calculated as one every 30 meters and one on each side. The total number of streetlights required for this section of the road is 668. The given traditional street light is based on a high-pressure sodium lamp with a power of 250W. Whereas the led street lamps are compared with a power of 80W.

Comparison of Lights Cost

Let’s say that the unit price of traditional street lamps is 150 US dollars per lamp while outdoor led street lights are 500 US dollars per light. The cost of the light source required for laying traditional street lamps is 668*150 US dollars = 100,200 US dollars. So, the light source required for laying led power street lights becomes 668*500 US dollars = 334,000 US dollars.

Cost comparison of street light led and traditional street lights for a 10-kilometer road in 5 years

Cost
Led Street Light
Traditional Street Light
Lamp
US$ 334000
US$ 100200
Wire
US$ 100000
US$ 600000
Electric
US$ 487000
US$ 1523000
Maintenance
US$ 0
US$ 50100
Total
US$ 921000
US$ 2273300

Conclusion

All in all, led street lighting is the most popular and suitable for personal and public use. We have listed many advantages of using street light led for you. If you are interested in outdoor led street lights, welcome to the professional led street lights manufacturer to ask any questions.