Parking lot lighting and lot lighting is something that we experience every day. They are used in school districts, office complexes, warehouses, and shopping centers, to name a few. Most organizations use traditional lights like mercury vapor lamps, high-pressure sodium lights, or metal halide lights. Let’s look at three interesting issues these traditional lights have and how LED parking lot lights can improve these issues in your shopping center’s parking lot lighting system.
How do they affect my energy costs?
Energy cost is always a concern for any organization. For a shopping center parking lot to use metal halide lights, for example, they’re looking at a high-intensity discharge light wattage. So, if a parking lot lighting system uses a higher wattage, they have more illumination and higher energy cost. If they use a lower wattage, they’re going to expect lower illumination in their lots and lower energy costs. This means that a shopping center is looking at about 100 to 1,000 watts of energy used per fixture in a shopping center’s parking lot alone!
So, for example, if a shopping center parking lot uses a traditional lighting system like metal halide, your light fixture uses about 1,000 watts. Your shopping center is then looking at spending about $525 per fixture per year with this type of light. Quite a hefty amount compared to LED lights which consume about half of the traditional lights’ wattage and produce the same, if not better, illumination.
What will my shopping center’s parking lot maintenance costs be?
Another cost issue any shopping center will experience is parking lot lighting maintenance costs. Because of the height of your lights, they do require special equipment to just get to them. Special equipment like bucket trucks aren’t cheap and not every shopping mall center (or any organization for that matter) has one stashed in their warehouse or garage.
On top of that, shopping centers will also need a specific type of personnel to come out and provide maintenance. This can rack up some costs over time. Maintaining traditional lights can cost your shopping center’s parking lot about $1,000 or more for a single light fixture per year. LED lights on the other hand have a longer lifespan which means you won’t need to worry about constant maintenance.
How do they affect my shopping center’s lighting performance?
This is such a critical component. At the end of the day, it is important to have the needed illumination for your shopping center’s parking lot. Your shopping center will experience different lighting effects with different traditional lighting systems. If your shopping center parking lot needs a white-colored light then metal halides are your best choice. However, metal halide light quality reduces over time. This means that you’re looking to change your lights frequently.
If your parking lot is using high-pressure sodium lights your parking lot will see longer-lasting lights but your parking lot will have an orange hue. So your parking lot will not have the greatest visibility with this type of light, but you’re looking at a longer-lasting traditional lighting system.
Conclusion:
The issue of energy costs, maintenance costs, and lighting performance are good reasons why a shopping center should consider LED parking lot lights. Your shopping center will not only have great lighting quality for less, but it’ll also require the least amount of maintenance. Tetrus can help you convert your existing traditional system. We can help your shopping center achieve greater savings in the long run while providing customers with the best lighting possible.
