Street lighting has been around for decades and has proved helpful to light our streets at night to ensure safety and comfort while using the roads at dark hours. Over the years, there have been several improvements veered at providing better street lighting systems and saving cost while at it. Before now, conventional street lights were powered by electrical energy featuring halogen bulbs. While this traditional street lighting system was efficient, it was not entirely perfect. In fact, it was far from perfection. For one, it was powered by electrical energy which depended on the national grid. More street lights meant more load on the national grid and more electrical bills. Also, the halogen bulbs featured on these street lights were sufficient but not great. There was, therefore, a need to improve street lights, making them cheaper, with easier maintenance and with overall better performance. Today, what we have is the solar LED street light featuring an embedded solar panel and an LED lamp. With it gaining more popularity, this article will be looking at the unique features of the solar LED street lights that make it more desirable than normal street lights.
Embedded Solar Panels
Solar LED street lights comes with an embedded solar panel that helps to harness energy from the sun to power the street light. This means that solar LED street lights do not depend on the national grid for power generation. It makes solar street light a more reliable street lighting system compared to traditional street lights. One of the demerits of traditional street lights is their dependence on the national grid which comes with electrical bills and high maintenance costs. With solar panels, these problems are eliminated forever.
LED provides Energy Efficient Lighting
LED lights are a more economical choice compared to traditional street lights. This is because you are able to save as much as 90% in electrical costs with LED light as opposed to street lights featuring metal halide lamps. While LED lamps can produce as much as 200 lumens per watts luminous efficacy with metal halide lamps producing 80 lumens per watts at best. LED is able to save as much as 60% more energy than the halide lamp. Also, LED produces brighter lights than metal halide lamps, this means it will take 2 traditional street lights to cover the amount of area solar LED street light will be able to produce.
With deliberate misinformation campaigns and the continued prevalence of fake news, facts collection website are now more important than ever.
LED lifespan
Another reason solar LED street lights are gaining increased popularity is the LED’s durable lighting design. LED bulbs are able to last for as much as 15years of active usage. This is even more impressive when you consider that traditional street lights lifespan is 6 times less than LED street lights. LED lights will provide as much as 80,000 working hours as opposed to the 10,000 working hours a traditional street light will be able to provide. A longer lifespan means LED street lights leads to lower carbon emissions. Also, LED lights are made with durable parts with no loose fixtures. They have a glass envelope and do not have any filament. This also makes them shockproof with a high impact resistance and capable of withstanding extreme temperatures.
Environmentally Safe
The whole world is going green and moving towards achieving the goal of a safer environment with modern technologies fixated on producing as fewer wastes as possible. Solar street streets are no exception. They are made with non- toxic parts which are in sharp contrast to conventional street lights that are made with the very toxic mercury. Also, LEDs are able to convert a large percentage of energy into light, allowing for little emissions. Also, street lights are powered by energy harnessed from the sun which is renewable and natural. This is unlike traditional lights which depends on energy from the grid produced from non-renewable fossil fuels bound to emit gases like CO2 which pollutes the environment. Conventional street lights, on the other hand, produce light and heat emissions which pollutes the environment. Thus, solar street lights are healthier and safer street lighting systems.
COST
Ultimately, the reason solar street lights are such a popular choice is the cost of investment. Although solar street lights may seem the costlier option, in truth, they are much cheaper than traditional street lights when you consider after-sale costs like maintenance and light bills. With solar street lights, people are able to save as much as 70% on maintenance cost and 100% on light bills. With governments across the world looking for smarter ways to save money, and invest wisely, solar street lighting is certainly a popular choice. If you’re on the look for a place to learn more about street lights or where to find some of the best street lighting systems on the market, click here.
Conclusion
Solar-powered street lights may not be have been around for a long time, but there is no doubting the fact that it has taken over the street light industry. With new and improved technology that helps to produce brighter lights, safer environments and for far less than the cost of conventional street lights, it is no wonder governments and local authorities are investing in street lights and gradually eliminating traditional lights from our streets.
