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Street Lighting

Street Lighting has been in practice from over last one century. The main purpose of doing street lighting is followings:

Basic Needs
Safety Security Orientation Visual Guidance

Principle of Road Lighting:


Night time visio n and approach for road lighting is different than day time vision. In Road lighting, road surface is washed with artificial lighting. The basic theory governing roadway lighting is that the road surface and surroundings should appear lighter than rest of the space so that vehicles and objects appear in silhouette. With improvement of living style of society additional needs have emerged and road lighting progressed beyond basic needs and in addition to basic needs of road lighting following have emerged as additional needs of road lighting: Ambiance Identity Promotion Environment Friendly Considering basic needs and additional needs following parameters for equipment selection in road lighting becomes very important: 1. High Efficiency of lighting sys tem (Optical efficiency) 2. Energy efficiency and thereby energy savings 3. Long life of light source 4. Color rendering of light source 5. System design and lumen distribution 6. Glare control 7. Strobe effect 8. Weather proof 9. Instant start and Hot R e-strike 10. Reliability of total system

In current scenario , people have choice to do road lighting with following light sources: High Pressure Sodium Vapor Lamp Metal Halide Lamps LED Basic needs of Road Lighting can be met with any of the abo ve lighting sources. Let us have a look on a comparison on additional needs as under point by point.

Optical Efficiency:
Optical efficiency in a lighting system is dependent on how effectively total lumens generated by a light source is utilized in applic ation. This is again dependent on the form factor of lamp and optics deployed in luminaire. Smaller and point source generally helps in achieving higher optical efficiencies.

Energy Efficiency (Energy savings)


Energy efficiency is a cumulative outcome of optical efficiency, thermal efficiency, electrical efficiency and system application optimization. For light sources the simple term of lamp efficacy is used which can be compared with lumen per watt.

Color Rendering (Ra)


Color rendering is ability to reveal true colors, in current scenario it has become very important factor as streets are being designed with lot of natural elements around.

System design and Lumen Distribution


This is basically application excellence and luminaire design dependant fa ctor in lighting system

Glare
Glare control is important to facilitate the comfortable drive as well as safe movement.

Instant Start and Hot Re -strike


This is related to how much time it takes to come to rated performance (Instant Start) and in case of power interruptions whether lamp can be switched on immediately on immediate restoration of power (hot Re-strike)

Let us have a look in matrix below showing comparative scenario of these 3 types of lamps in road lighting

Parameters
Optical Efficiency System Energy Efficiency Average Life Color Rendering (Ra) System Design Possibility to contro l lumen distribution Glare Control Strobe effect Weather Proof Instant Start Hot Re-strike Time Reliability Environment Frien dly Ease of Dispose Maintenance Friendliness Ruggedness Vibration Sensitive performance Easy to control electrical parameters Solid state Operation Cost Of Ownership on long term Futuristic Low Voltage Lamp Operation Lamp life matching installation life Free from polluting material Maximum System Recyclability Reliability Voltage fluctuation affecting performance

HPSV
Average Approx 28% 30,000 hours 25 Average Average Average Yes Difficult NO NO Average NO NO NO Average Yes NO Possible Average NO NO NO NO NO Average Yes

Metal Halide
Lowest Approx 24% 12,000 hours 60 Average Average Average Yes Difficult NO NO Average NO NO NO Delicate Yes NO Possible High NO NO NO No NO Average Very High

LED
Highest Approx 36% 50,000 hours 75 Best Best Very Good NO Easy Yes Yes Best Yes Yes Yes Rugged NO Yes Yes Low Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes High NO

Considering above facts , LED as a light source scores over other conventional light sources.

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