3 Minute Read

If you own or manage a parking lot with old parking lot lights, you need to consider converting parking lot lights to LED. Whether you represent a school or university, municipality, real estate organization, or if you’re a facility manager or building owner, converting to LED lighting can have tangible benefits for your organization. Updating your parking lot lighting has great potential to improve the overall look of your space, save you money, increase safety, and provide higher quality lighting.

To truly illustrate the benefits of converting parking lot lights to LED, we've included before and after photos below. We've also highlighted some of the impacts that this conversion will have on your entity.

Stouch Lighting is a manufacturer-neutral LED lighting distributor that aims to help organizations achieve energy efficient lighting solutions. We have a lot of experience conducting LED retrofits and conversions for parking lots, and we’d like to share some of that expertise (including a real look into results) with you.

First, let’s look at a lighting conversion for the West Chester Area School District.

LED Lighting for Parking Lots:

Before and After Middle School Pictures, a Case Study 

Stouch Lighting recently converted the parking lot lighting at two middle schools into LED lighting. E.N. Pierce and G.A. Stetson Middle Schools needed a higher quality of light for their exteriors, and administrators were interested in reducing their energy consumption. Because the schools also had on-site maintenance staff, a tertiary goal was to reduce the amount of time they had to spend on replacing and maintaining lighting fixtures.

Like many other parking lot fixtures, the previous lighting fixtures were metal halide lamps (read here to learn how metal halides stack up against LED bulbs). In all, Stouch replaced 88 fixtures across the two schools. Here are some of the financial benefits of converting to LED parking lot lighting that West Chester Area School District realized:

  • 74,390 kWh reduction
  • 66% reduction in energy use
  • More than $6,800 saved in annual maintenance costs
  • 83,000 lbs greenhouse gas reductions
  • More than $5,000 in rebate eligibility (read here to learn about rebates)
  • An estimated return on investment (ROI) of 24 months (fill out our ROI calculator)

In the two pictures below, you’ll notice a few distinct differences from the parking lot lighting conversion. In the “Before” pictures, only a few cars are visible under each pole light, and areas of darkness are significant. Once we installed LED pole lights, the dark patches were significantly smaller, and painted lines are clearly visible. The “After” pictures much better represent the type of safe environment that a school district would like to have for its students, faculty, and families after dark. (Read here for more reasons schools and universities in particular should consider LED retrofits).

BEFOREAFTERWCASD1

 

LED Parking Lot Lighting Benefits

Three Major Impacts LED Parking Lot Lights will have on Your Organization

Because parking lots are generally such a large portion of a property, their potential to change your energy usage is huge. The first major impact you can expect to see from an LED retrofit is a big reduction in energy consumption. Some of our clients have seen savings up to 80%! The savings are so significant that you can finance the replacement with the energy cost savings you will realize as a result (learn more about how to finance a parking lot conversion here). Here are some examples of energy reduction that we’ve been able to accomplish for clients in the past:

Why is it that these organizations are seeing such reduction in energy consumption? The truth is that LED lighting technology is much more efficient at emitting light than other types of bulbs. Not only do the bulbs emit more light for less energy, they last much, much longer, too.

Which leads us to the second point...

The second major impact you can expect to see when converting parking lot lights to LED is reduced maintenance costs. Because LED parking lot lights are utilizing lighting technology that is highly effective and efficient, fixtures need to be maintained far less often. This translates directly into maintenance savings, both on materials and labor costs. For instance, many parking lots use metal halide bulbs for lighting. While these lighting fixtures do have some benefits, some metal halide lamps have long warm-up periods (5-10 minutes) when the light is first turned on or in the event that the power source is interrupted. Metal halide lamps also have a tendency to lose up to 50% of their useful lumens. Typical preventive measures include changing bulbs prior to their expected end of life and en-masse (versus spot changing single bulbs that actually fail). This can significantly increase costs and significantly shorten the useful lifespan of the light. Ebook: 7 Different Lights LEDs Are Putting Out of Business

The third major benefit of LED parking lot lighting is a higher quality light. Regardless of whether your parking lot is associated with a school, commercial building, shopping center, or public building, high quality lighting is a definite benefit. Residents, tenants, customers, visitors, and students alike will appreciate a parking lot that doesn’t make them feel like an extra in a horror show! LED fixtures for parking lots create brighter, higher quality lighting that leaves fewer dark spots and fewer gaps in coverage as a result of evenly distributed lighting.

As a final image example, take a look at the parking lot photos below to see what we’re talking about:

led parking lot lighting led pole lights

Choose LED Lighting Solutions

Stouch Lighting will use LED parking lot fixtures to transform your parking lot into a safe, welcoming, well-lit area...that also saves you money!

We take great pride in helping organizations realize the benefits that come with LED retrofits. Not only is your organization going to save money on materials and labor, you will have a better product that lasts longer and provides better quality lighting for the people who use your parking lot. Please contact us today, or fill out our ROI calculator to discover how Stouch Lighting can help transform your parking lot.