What are the Advantages of an HPS Street Light?
If you’re wondering why a lot of HPS lights haven’t been taken down today, this is because they still present some benefits to the community. Here they are.
Among the other types of street lights, HPS is the most efficient (about 7 times more than incandescent lights, 2 times more than mercury vapor lights).
Quicker warm-up time than other lamp types (3 to 4 minutes) like mercury vapor and metal halide.
Longer lifespan (24,000 hours).
Cheaper price
Higher lumen efficiency than older street light types.
Wide variety of lighting brightness and power ranging from 35 to 1000 watts.
Great for growing plants.
What are the Disadvantages of an HPS Street Light?
But HPS street lights don’t come entirely clean. Here are the drawbacks.
Does not accurately reflect the true color of objects.
Needs a transformer/ballast for voltage and current regulation to assist start up and operation.
Requires a few minutes (5 to 10 minutes) before reaching full light brightness.
Needs one minute to cool down.
Produces reddish color at the end of its life
Burns at the end of its life.
Now let’s move on to the newest type of street lighting today.
Best Uses of HPS Street Lights
Since HPS street lights have high intensity lights, they are best for tall mounting applications like for industrial lighting and security lighting. They are the best options when you need to mount street lights with 15 feet and above heights.
They are not suitable for applications needing high color rendition accuracy, like in retail and commercialize lighting. HPS lights would do poorly on projecting the colors of objects with high precision. If street lights are to be switched on and off frequently, HPS lights are also not appropriate for the job.
