Press Release: Parking Lot Lighting at Oak Springs Gets a Makeover

Stouch Lighting is happy to announce the recent completion of an LED conversion for RJ Waters and Associates , a commercial real estate development company based in Southeast Pennsylvania. The Company manages more than 2.4 million square feet of retail space in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Delaware, and maintains relationships with more than 350 tenants. RJ Waters and Associates is one of the premier commercial real estate development companies on the east coast, and they take great pride in maintaining properties for the benefit of tenants, consumers, and visitors alike.

For this particular project, Stouch Lighting completed an LED pole lights retrofit at the Oak Springs Shopping Center in Warrenton, Virginia. Let’s learn more!

High Pressure Sodium Lights versus LED Lights for Parking Lots The Oak Springs parking lot, like so many others, had high pressure sodium (HPS) lights for nighttime illumination. While HPS lights are common, they are quickly being replaced during LED pole lights retrofits, and for good reason. In short, LED pole lights last longer, provide higher quality lighting, and are far more efficient. Sodium lights aren’t all bad; they operate in a range where the human eye is very sensitive and so there is less power required to achieve the same lighting effect (compared to high intensity discharge and fluorescent lighting). For this reason, HPS bulbs are very efficient. It is only recently with the advent of affordable and prevalent LED lighting that they are consistently surpassed in terms of energy efficiency and lifespan.

There are a few downsides to HPS lighting, however, and this makes them a good candidate for LED conversion. For instance, they have the worst color rendering of any bulbs on the market (learn about color rendering index, correlated color temperature, and more in this blog ). They also require some time to warm up, and this can be a negative characteristic when it comes to parking lot, parking garage, or street lighting. Their failure characteristics include flickering and failing to ignite, which can be distracting.

Why change parking lot lighting from HPS to LED pole lights? In short, there are three reasons that organizations should consider an LED pole lights retrofit:

Higher quality lighting: LEDs have better color rendering and come in a variety of hues Decreased maintenance costs: LEDs last four to forty times longer than conventional lights, so much less maintenance is required Decreased energy costs: LEDs are far more efficient than HPS lights because they are directional and waste less energy as heat What were the results of changing the Oak Springs parking lot lighting from HPS to LED? RJ Waters wanted to implement an energy efficient lighting solution, and that’s exactly what happened. Here are some of the tangible results from their retrofit:

Previous 1000 watt lights replaced with LED pole lights that require only 168 watts; this resulted in an amazing 84% reduction in energy costs . Annual maintenance cost reduction of more than $4,000 as a result of longer lifetimes (this also translated into more than $47,000 in maintenance savings over the life of the LED lights). Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 21,500 lbs Notice the excellent lighting in the attached picture - this is a parking lot that visitors, shoppers, and tenants will feel safe and comfortable in at night. Are you interested in learning more about an LED pole lights retrofit for your parking lot? Please contact us today so that we can discuss whether an LED retrofit can help your organization achieve its energy and lighting goals. We are also happy to complete a free return on investment calculation for your company. Thank you for reading, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Related Articles