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Efficient Outdoor Lighting

Dr. Eng. Mohamed H. Helal

New out-door lighting technology implementation will reduce great amount of energy
consumed for street lighting .

Street lighting works an average of 11 ~ 12 hours / day 365 days year , when use energy
efficient product the payback will be within 1 ~ 2 years maximum
This information sheet suggests some of the things that can be done. Most of the
suggestions apply to indoor lighting as well, where they also offer significant savings.
There are several clear cut measures that can be taken to improve energy savings.
New, much improved light sources are now available which provide considerably more
light per unit of energy.
Most newer fixtures offer better light control, putting light where it is needed rather than
wasting a great deal of the light produced by the lamp ( Decorative Luminaries)
Replacement of older fixtures and lamps with the newer, improved ones can greatly
improve efficiency.
Lamp efficiency is measured in lumens per watt. A lumen is a unit for measuring the
amount of light; a watt is a unit for measuring the amount of electrical energy used. The
lamp that gives the most lumens per watt is the most efficient lamp.
The table below lists the lighting efficiency of some of the common lamps used for
outdoor lighting:

Type of Lamp Lumens per watt Average Lamp Life (hours)


Incandescent 8 - 25 1000 - 2000
Mercury Vapor 20 - 50 12000 - 24000+
Metal Halide 60 - 100 10000 - 15000
High Pressure Sodium 60 - 140 12000 - 24000
Fluorescent 40 - 105 10000 – 24000+
Low Pressure Sodium 80 - 200 10000 - 18000
The less values are verified at lower power (the higher the power = more efficacy)

Fluorescent: Like metal halide, fluorescent is about four times as efficient as


incandescent lighting. Fluorescent is commonly used for indoor applications, but
outdoor usage is increasing.
The best fluorescent and compact fluorescent (CFL) sources have several advantages over
metal halide: longer life, a much shorter warm-up time to full brightness, ability to
switch them on and off several times each night without significantly shortening
bulb life, and a white light that is spectrally much less polluting than that produced
by metal halide.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS): Its main usage is outdoors, for street lighting, parking lot
lighting, and other such applications. It is generally more energy efficient than metal
halide and is a good choice when true color is not critical. The light produced is an
orange-gold color. It's very common in the U.S.
Low Pressure Sodium (LPS): This light source is the most energy efficient of all, and it
is an excellent choice when used with a quality fixture that controls the light output. The
light is produced from glowing sodium gas within a tube, and so the LPS fixtures, for
higher wattage lamps, are larger than the equivalent fixtures for HPS or MH. However,
the LPS fixture is an excellent choice for street lighting, parking lots, and security
lighting. There is no color rendering at all, but adequate color rendering is quite possible
with system designs that also use a few MH or fluorescent fixtures to add a little white
light. For equivalent fixtures (ones that offer the same amount of light and good light
control), a 175 watt mercury vapor fixture could be replaced by a 100 watt HPS or a 55
watt LPS. The 35 watt LPS is equivalent to a 200 watt incandescent. It is easy to see that
considerable energy savings is possible. Remember also that if the installation is glare
free, a lower light level offers excellent visibility. More is not always better.
Lighting controls: Controlling when and where the lights are used, how long they are on,
and how bright they are can all be a major factor in conserving energy. Devices range
from a simple on/off switch to computers programmed to control lights automatically.
Turn lights off when not needed. Use individual controls rather than lighting large areas
off of one switch. Use timers. Don't burn outdoor lights in the daytime. Use photo-sensors
when possible. Some of the newer applications use motion sensors for room light control,
and such systems are also feasible for outdoor applications. Dimming controls at demand
light management that can dim out door lightings at late hours is the newest used
technology world wide and has proof practicality and efficiency .
Digital Electronic Controls : New Digital Electronic devices with High Frequency are
available now to overcome HPS , Metal Halide and LPS lamps over current starting
problem the new technology eliminates the RESONANCE HID lamps problem , the new
digital controls will open large economic application for High Frequency HID lamps
Electronic Ballast ..
Maintenance: Finally, do not forget lamp and fixture maintenance as a factor. Keep the
fixture clean from dust and dirt. Such contamination can reduce light output in some
cases by up to 50 percent.
*Cost Comparison Example: The decorative poles in Egypt are using Blend Lamps
( Blend lamps are kind of incandescent lamps with fluorescent powder painted ) Called
FLORA Lamps they are not efficient and consume large amount of energy ( the 160W
will consume 208 ~ 230W and the 250W will consume ( 325 ~ 360W) Service life time is
about 1500 hour Efficacy is 20 Lumen/ W .
Use of Blend Lamps or HID lamps with decorative lighting poles will result in excess
heat that will damage the luminaries glass in addition to attract lots of dust and pollution
that will reduce out put lighting efficiency .
A good example is to replace the Blend lamps with High Power CFL this will results in
great savings with longer service life with cost effective ..
This example is assuming 10 hours per day use and 8 cents US$ per KW/H , blend
lamps are used widely in Egypt for 5 , 6 and 8 meters poles .
Blend (Flora Lamp) High Power CFL Lamps
Lamp Total KWH/ KWH
US$ year CFL Watt KWH/year Saving/year Savings
Watt Watt year $/Yr
250 325 1186.25 94.9 85 310 24.8 $70.1 74%
160 208 759.2 $60.73 55 200 16 $44.73 73%
Technical comparison
Lamp Service Start
Lumen/Watt Temperature CRI Kelvin ThdI
Type Life Time
2~3
Blend >
22 1500/h > 200C >80 5500 minutes
Lamp 30%
when Hot
High
<
Power 85 8000/h < 65C >82 2700~6500 0.5 sec
10%
CFL
Conclusion :

Use of High Power CFL lamps (T5 Ho) instead of Blend lamps for decorative poles
will result in an average savings of more than 70% from consumed lighting energy.

It’s recommended to use 55W Tubes to replace Blend lamps of 160W and 85W Tubes
to replace 250W Lamps.

It’s recommended to use Tubes with 2700 Kelvin to give best visibility during
fogging times .

Use of HP CFL will overcome the heat problem that is responsible for breaking the
Luminaries glass and carbonize the plastic covers resulting in decreasing light out
put..

High Pressure Sodium


High pressure sodium lamps are very efficient they can produce up to 140 lumen per
watt , HPS lamps require ballast and igniter , a 250 W magnetic ballast of very good
quality will consume minimum of 10% over the lamp power at rated voltage , if
voltage will race up the consumed power will bi higher , each 1 volt will increase
consumed power by 1% while when voltage is less than nominated voltage ( 220V )
power will be less by 1% for each volt down , a 400W sodium lamp circuit will
consume and average of 440W at 220V and about 480W at 230V and 520W at
240V this phenomena will shorten the lamp life dramatically ..

Magnetic ballast require large amount of energy at start , a 250W lamp will require
3,5 Amperes while 400W lamps will require 5 Amps.

HPS lamps will consume large amount of energy before the end of life , this
phenomena will burn the magnetic ballast in many cases unless is equipped with
thermal protection , before the end of the HPD lamp life the power will race up to
30% , this effect will take place for an average of 500 ~ 1000 hour before the lamp
will stop to work ..

HID electronic ballast.


Till recent times use of High frequency electronic ballast was not suggested because
of the HID tubes resonance effect phenomena , this phenomena has restricted the
use of High frequency electronic ballast with HPS and Metal Halide lamps , only
low frequency electronic ballast was able to be used with HID lamps ( low
frequency = 50Hz ~ 500Hz) low frequency electronic ballast is bulky and expensive
( high frequency allow the use of compact size transformers) .

Electronic ballast will improve HID tubes service life , overcome the starting
problem and improve the flakers effect , Electronic ballast with low frequency are
expensive , economic payback seam to be difficult is used in large scale.

High Frequency Electronic HID ballast and resonance problem.

Digital control technology was able to overcome the resonance problem and to make
the HID electronic ballast more economic and visible , Digital High frequency HID
electronic ballast with light demand control facility will present a large saving
opportunity for street lighting , the main idea is to dim the light during non needed
hours to save large amount of energy , use soft start technology made possible to
overcome the large energy consumed during starting time , a typical 250W or 400W
electronic ballast will consume 0.3 ~ 0.4 Amperes at start compare to 3,5 and 5
Amperes for magnetic ballast , soft start technology will increase HID lamp service
life and allow high efficient use of the power resources with minimum energy losses .

The soft start , protection system , stable voltage supply to lamp during operation
will enhance lamp service life up to 50% compare to magnetic ballast and will
eliminate the flicker effect .

Electronic ballast will control the HID lamp during the end of lamp life and will cut
off the power when lamps is dead to protect the ballast from damage .

A great amount of energy is consumed during end of HID lamp life , as this period is
calculated to be an average of 750 hours that lamp will consume 30 % more energy ,
adding the extra energy due to over voltage during late night hours a sum of 50%
extra energy is consumed during the last 750 hour of the HPS service life , Digital
dimmable electronic ballasts will overcome this problem to as maximum power is
controlled for certain hours of use during the night then power will dim down by
30% then by 50% during late night hours , this new technology is under application
now from many countries and expecting to be wildly implemented due to simple way
of control and ability to communicate with several levels of communication protocol.

Conclusion

1) Use of digital dimmable electronic HPS ballast will save a great amount of
energy that can reach 50% from total consumed energy ,

2) Will increase HPS lamps service life and will decrease line losses .

3) Will solve starting High energy need problem during rush hours

4) Central control of City lighting consumed power during peak hours will
allow new energy management tool .

5) The fear of resonance effect is no longer to be considered , practical


application results show no such phenomena with Digital HF Electronic
Ballasts .

For more information’s contact Prof. Dr. Eng Mohamed Helal


info@futeklighting.com

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