LED street lighting: types, advantages and disadvantages of lamps and scope

LED is a semiconductor that converts electrical current into light optical radiation. Recently, LED street lighting has been especially popular, which has significant advantages over other light sources. There are many varieties of LED street lights. This variety allows them to be used for functional and decorative lighting.

Advantages and disadvantages

LED lamps were invented in the early 90s by Japanese scientists. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery that brought lighting with high luminous efficacy and low energy consumption to the world. Advantages of LED devices:

1. Energy saving. LED lights consume 2 times less electricity compared to incandescent bulbs. For this reason, they cannot cause an overload in the mains, which means that the equipment is less likely to wear out.
2. Durability. Street lights shine mainly at night, and the service life of LEDs in this case reaches 25 years. With continuous illumination, they will last up to 15 years.
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3. Strength. The body of the outdoor LED lamp is made of aluminum alloy and is designed so that it does not accumulate dirt and water. Some models are equipped with a condensate drain valve. These lights work at temperatures from -60 to + 50 ° C, so there are no restrictions on their use. LED lights can be used in any region.
4. Reliability. The design of street lamps is vandal resistant. The lanterns are fireproof (do not explode), they work silently.
5. Good color rendering. LEDs do not flicker, their light parameters are optimal. This is especially important for concentrating the attention of drivers on the roads.
6. Environmental friendliness. Lamps do not contain toxic substances and mercury in their design. This does not require any conditions for their operation, as well as special disposal.
7. Ease of installation. It is especially easy to fix the LED strip.

LED street lighting has some drawbacks and, above all, is high price. However, their use gives significant savings, so such lamps justify themselves in the future. The lamp design is susceptible to voltage surges.

Also, for normal operation, such a lamp needs high-quality heat dissipation. This function is performed in its construction by the substrate to which the LEDs are soldered. If it is loosely fixed (which happens in cheap models), then the lamp will quickly become unusable.

The advantages of LED lights are much more, therefore they are recommended for illumination of objects on the street and in household plots.

Types of LED lamps

These luminaires are used both as a single device and as a whole group. On large areas, several devices are installed at regular intervals. They differ in the shape of the structure and the type of base. Types of LED street lights:

1. Searchlight. The device has a high power and a large spreading area. As a rule, it is installed at large facilities (sports complexes, large areas, parking lots). The floodlight is quite large and is not used for decorative lighting.
2. Flashlight. These devices illuminate central streets and highways. It uses 400 W lamps. On small secondary roads, sidewalks, in squares and on personal plots, lanterns with a power of up to 150 watts are installed.
3. Duralight. A thin plastic strip, inside which powerful LEDs are located at a distance of 1.5 mm from each other. It is widely used to decorate trees, pillars in landscape design and in the illumination of advertising objects on the streets of the city.
4. Duraflex. It differs from similar devices in waterproofness and great flexibility, which greatly simplifies the installation and operation of the device. Used for decorative lighting. With the help of such lighting, a wide variety of landscape compositions are created.
5. Ruler. A flexible silicone coated plastic strip to which small LED bulbs are mounted vertically. Differs in low power (12 W) and long service life. Used to illuminate advertising structures.
6. Net. A very original and unusual street lighting, it has many varieties. Easy to install, it seems light in appearance, but it is quite strong and shock-resistant. The mesh is installed between strong supports to decorate buildings and objects in parks.

Application area

LEDs are used as energy-saving emergency lighting.

Interest in them among ordinary consumers is just beginning to grow, and designers have long been using the unique capabilities of these devices.

LED lamps are used to illuminate such objects:

• residential buildings;
• motorways;
• pedestrian crossings;
• billboards;
• media facades;
• roller displays;
• digital displays;
• bridges;
• tunnels;
• shop windows;
• protected objects (monuments);
• shopping centers;
• homestead buildings and houses.

The efficiency of using LEDs is growing every year, as their cost is constantly decreasing. New developments lead to the fact that their brightness is constantly increasing and a long service life is maintained.