What are the advantages and disadvantages of street LED lights

Time：2016-05-06　Views：15073　Compile：SUNPER

Everything in this world comes with its benefits and disadvantages. With this, here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the street LED lights.

 - Advantages of the LED street lights:

1. Lower consumption of energy

Most of the LED lighting retrofits are said to dramatically reduce the energy used. However, in the actual facts, studies have shown that lower energy consumption is tied and limited to reduced levels of illumination.

2. Has predictable and long lifetime

The lifespan of the LED street light fixture is between 5 to 10 years. This lifespan is 2 to 4 times the lifespan of the current prevalent HPS. The LED products do not fail like the other light sources or barring catastrophic failure of the other electronic or mechanical components of the LED fixtures. The lifetime of a product is typically set by decreasing luminous output by 30 percent. However, the functional lifespan of any LED fixture is usually limited by the weakest link. The associated drive electronics are projected to last for about 50,000 hours. It is very crucial to understand that there is no LED streetlight product that has been in service for this long so that it can be used to confirm the projections. If this will be realized, then there will be less frequent need to replace or service the LEDs and this will mean lower maintenance cost.

3. LEDs color rendering is more accurate

The color rendering index of the LEDs is basically the ability of the light source to reproduce colors of the objects correctly in comparison with an ideal light source. An improved color rendering index makes it simpler for drivers to easily recognize the objects.

4. You can quickly turn on and off

Unlike the high intensity discharge lamps (HID) and fluorescent lamps such as metal halide, mercury vapor as well as sodium vapor lamps, it takes time to heat up once the switched in turned on. The LEDs usually come with full brightness instantly. 

5. Instant restart

Unlike the metal halide, sodium vapor and mercury vapor lamps, the LEDs do not have any problem when restarting immediately that maybe due to inadvertent turn off or brief power failure.

6. RoHS compliance

The LEDs do not contain any lead or mercury and thus they do not release any poisonous gasses once they get damaged.

7. They are less attractive to the nocturnal insects

Nocturnal insects are usually attracted to ultraviolet light that is emitted from the many conventional light sources.

8. They are optically effective lighting equipment

Some types of the street lights normally use reflectors in order to capture the light emitted from the lamp. Reflectors do absorb some light even under the best conditions. Also the fluorescent lamps having phosphor coated bulbs do absorb some light that is reflected back by the reflector. Refractor is a glass cover and it helps to project the light down on the street in a good pattern although some light goes to waste as they are directed up to the sky. The LED lamp panels can send light in any desired direction without necessarily using a reflector.

9. Reduced glare

Directing the emitted light downward reduced the amount of light which is directed into driver’s eyes. Another advantage is higher light output even if temperature is low. 

 - Disadvantages of the LED street lights.

To start with, most people do not like the ambiance usually produced by the LEDs with color temperatures of 4000 Kelvins or higher. It is often called prison lighting or zombie. There is also a major risk from the glare. A certain report from the French Government in 2013 published that a luminance level of more than 10,000 cd/m2 causes visual discomfort in the field of vision.

The other disadvantage is that the initial cost of the LED street lighting is high and this makes it to take several years of savings you have made from energy to pay for that. By the Purkinje effect, the dark-adapted human eye is highly sensitive to green and blue light that is emitted from the street LED lights in large amounts. This magnifies the effects of light pollution which is commonly known as sky glow.

The increase in the green and blue content of the artificial sky glow comes from the widespread of the LED lighting that is likely to increase the impacts on nocturnal animal behaviors as well as bird migration. There is also progressive wear of the layers of phosphor in the white LEDs. The change in color gradually moves devices from one risk to a riskier one.