Street lighting is an important part of keeping the road safe for both drivers and pedestrians. The eyes adjust to the illumination of the surroundings that’s why it is important to install the right lighting depending on its use.
The main purpose of street lighting is to assist the drivers and pedestrians when it’s getting dark. Aside from that, it also brings in a lot of benefits such as reducing crime rate and creating a more pleasant mood or environment on certain areas.
Read along and learn more about the basics of street lighting.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Street Lights
Street lights have two different functions – either lighting the street or the pedestrian walkways. Its function has a great impact on the features your street light needs. When choosing fixtures to light the streets, you’ll need a higher pole height for more distribution of light along the road.
The poles should also be placed closer to each other so there will be no dark spaces and the light on the road stays constant. It is important to have constant light distribution so that the eyes won’t constantly readjust on the changing brightness.
On the other hand, if you’re choosing street lights for pedestrian ways, the main goal of your lights is to illuminate only the walkways. Aside from that, there are plenty of conditions that could create dark areas in the walkways such as trees, shrubs, and many more. You’ll need shorter poles in mounting pedestrian lights so it won’t be blocked by trees and also to provide stronger illumination on the walkway.
Types of Street Lights
You’ll notice that there are different kinds of street lighting through its style and even the light colour itself. The older lighting types are mercury vapor, high pressure sodium, and metal halide lights. These lights are commonly used if you need softer and less bright lighting during the night. However, LED lights are the most popular these days.
They are brighter and really produce great lighting on almost any space. Aside from that, LED lights are more energy efficient and produce lesser heat making them an eco-friendlier choice. Some city governments also utilize solar powered street lights to save on energy consumption. Aside from being better for the environment, solar energy is also free making it a good choice to save on daily lighting costs.
Usually, solar powered street lights are just LED lights that have solar panels attached to power them. If you’re looking for solar street lighting suppliers Australia has some few good ones you could trust. Choose the right lighting fixture that provides the illumination needed on the space where it will be installed.
Street lighting is really an essential part of both the street and even pedestrian walkways. Without those lights, it would be difficult and even dangerous for people to move through the streets especially at night when it is already dark. With this, it is really important to choose and plan the street lighting properly before installing them.
