Road and street lighting: Illuminate roads and streets with LED
Light-emitting diodes, better known as LEDs, can be used for much more than indoor lighting. More and more cities and municipalities are implementing LED as road and street lighting, and with this blog we want to tell about the many advantages associated with LED lighting on the road network and in the streetscape.
Whether it concerns highways, country roads or smaller path systems, lighting plays a crucial role, which is why many municipalities are increasingly implementing LED as part of the city's lighting. The City of Copenhagen has a burning desire to become the world's first CO2-neutral capital by 2025. In 2017, the municipality therefore decided to replace 19,000 of the city's total of 45,000 street lamps with LEDs. At the time of writing, 300 km of Copenhagen roads and paths have been given new LED lighting, and the municipality plans to replace another 9,000 street lamps with LED.
Reduced maintenance
One of the main reasons for replacing traditional road lighting with LED is the low maintenance requirement of the light emitting diodes. Firstly, LED luminaires are one of the most robust solutions on the market, and they are therefore perfect for harsh outdoor environments with fluctuating temperatures as well as dust, rain and moisture. In addition, LED lighting has a lifespan of around 50,000 hours as standard, which is in great contrast to traditional street lamps and light poles with a much lower lifespan. All this means that LED lighting is virtually maintenance-free.
Big savings
Replacing light sources can be both time-consuming and costly, which is why municipalities may do well to replace the existing road and street lighting with LED. In addition, LEDs are a much more energy-efficient solution, as the LEDs have a lower power consumption and a generally higher lumen performance. This means that LED lamps emit more light for fewer watts.
More environmentally friendly
Since LED uses less electricity to emit an equivalent or higher amount of light, municipalities use less CO2 by using LED for the city's road and street lighting. LED lighting can thus contribute to strengthening the environmental image of the municipality or city.
Increased security
In addition to economic and environmental benefits, safety is probably the overriding factor in replacing traditional street lighting with LED. Every year, thousands of Danes are exposed to traffic accidents. While some of these accidents are caused by speeding or blood alcohol levels, a number of these accidents are due to poor visibility on the road. In Copenhagen Municipality, the dim, orange light has been replaced with a clear and brighter LED solution. It has thus become easier for drivers to spot pedestrians, cyclists and other passing drivers, which has all in all increased traffic safety in the city.
Lumega's solution
At Lumega, we develop substitutes for traditional road and street lighting. We offer both luminaires for lighting roads and streets as well as retrofit solutions, where the existing light source is simply replaced with an LED insert.