What are the common quality problems of LED street lights?

Importance of public lighting quality

The quality of LED street lights has always been the center of attention of all parties, because LED street lights are closely related to people’s lives. According to CNN Health, there is an article about street light LED problems. The article describes two current concerns about LED streetlights. The first is discomfort and glare. Because of the concentrated light and high blue light content of LEDs, they can cause severe glare that constricts your pupils.

Blue light scatters more strongly in the human eye than longer wavelength light such as yellow and red light, and sufficient levels of blue light can damage the retina. Another issue discussed in the American Medical Association statement is the effect of LED streetlights on human circadian rhythms.

So, is this really true? In fact, these are common quality problems with LED street lights. In this article, we will provide you with a detailed introduction to the problems of LED street lights.

Road construction is an important part of modern city construction, and LED street light is an important equipment in road construction, which can illuminate the road at night and create a safe night environment for people. Therefore, we should prioritize the quality of street lights when purchasing. Poor quality street lights are unstable in lighting performance, which will bring many problems to the later maintenance and replacement work. This will not only affect the safety of pedestrians and drivers, but also increase the cost of public expenditure on urban construction.

What are the common quality problems of LED street lights?

In fact, road construction requires a large number of high-quality LED street lights to illuminate various roads in the city and ensure that night activities can be carried out properly. However, even if we select them carefully, we will still find some common quality problems. This is because many manufacturers will cut costs in order to attract customers with low prices. However, these low prices are achieved through the use of inferior materials and processes rather than through technological innovation, and therefore this has a significant impact on the quality of LED street lights. We have listed nine of these problems below.

LED Driver Failure Problems

The LED driver is the most important part of the LED street light. Through a large number of public lighting projects, we have found that the most easily damaged part is the LED driver. When it is damaged, the street light will not work at all, some of the LEDs will not work, or sometimes the LEDs will flicker. That’s why we insist on using the most recognized brands of LED drivers, such as Meanwell, Infinity or other world-renowned brands such as Philips and Osram. The reason is simple, in a word, LED drivers are as important to LED street lights as the heart is to a human being.

It may seem like we can save money by purchasing a street light with an inferior LED driver. Eventually, however, you will realize that you will spend more money in the future to replace the LED driver with a new one for repairs. Therefore, when it comes to long-term public lighting projects, streetlights with high-quality LED drivers are the best choice. This means we need to be more careful when choosing LED drivers.

LED Chip Inferiority Problem

In LED chips, gold wires are used because of their good qualities. Why should high-end LEDs use this high-priced material? Because gold wire has the advantages of high electrical conductivity, good thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, good toughness, and excellent chemical stability. If other wires are used, such as copper alloy wires, gold-plated silver alloy wires as well as silver alloy wires, the reliability of the light source will be reduced, making the LED chip more prone to failure after a period of time due to desoldering.

Unlike LED drivers, we can’t easily recognize the model and brand of LEDs with our naked eyes. By the way, we need a professional electrician to replace the LED module. Replacing it is more complicated than replacing an LED driver and will cost a lot of labor.

SPD functionality issues

A lightning protector, also known as a surge protector, is an electronic device that provides safety protection for electronic equipment, instruments and communication lines. When an external disturbance causes a sudden current or voltage spike in a circuit or communication line, the surge protector can conduct and shunt the current spike in a very short period of time, thus preventing other equipment in the circuit from being damaged by overvoltage. A good lightning protector should be able to repeat its lightning protection function as specified.

Although SPDs are built into LED drivers, we still think it is worthwhile to install SPDs for streetlights. If your project site has very strong lightning strikes or an unstable power grid, we recommend protecting your streetlights with a 20KV SPD. Protecting your equipment with an SPD that costs about $5 is an affordable option compared to LED drivers or complete streetlights.

Low IP/IK rating issues

IP ratings are used to identify international protection class codes. An IP rating consists of two numbers that indicate protection against solid particles (first number) and protection against liquid ingress (second number). The higher the number, the higher the level of protection.

The IK index is defined as IK followed by a number from 00 to 10. It indicates the level of protection of electrical cabinets against external mechanical shocks. Products with an IK rating are important, especially if they are located in public areas, high-traffic areas or commercial environments. A high IK rating ensures the safety of the environment and personnel.

Both IP and IK ratings are important for LED street lights. If the IP rating is low, water can get into the electrical part of the luminaire which can damage the luminaire. At the same time, we will also face the problem of electric shock and personnel injury. If the IK rating is low, the luminaire can be damaged or ruptured when the surface of the luminaire is subjected to some degree of impact. Potential injuries to pedestrians can occur in the event of flying debris or insufficient required illumination.

Unreasonable thermal design problems

Thermal design is one of the points that LED street light buyers should be concerned about when making their selection.LED chips and LED drivers usually require the proper temperature to function properly. This temperature is usually below 105° and can be found in their datasheets.LED drivers also require the proper temperature.

If the fixtures are poorly designed to dissipate heat, the life of the LED street light will be affected, or worse, the LED street light will stop working. For LED drivers, they may alternate between running and not running, which also affects the service life of the LED power supply. Therefore, for LED street lights, manufacturers must pay attention to the operating temperatures of both the LED chip and the LED driver.

The maximum operating temperature of the LED chip is usually controlled below 85° (at an ambient temperature of 25°). In this way, we can not only get a good price/performance ratio for LED street lighting, but also make the service life of the lamps as long as possible. The most intuitive way for buyers is to ask the supplier for an ISTMT report. In this report, you can see the Ts temperature of the LED chip and the Tc temperature of the power supply. With this report, buyers can find the right supplier more easily.

Problems with poor quality powder coatings

For outdoor LED street lights, a good powder coating can resist corrosion, abrasion and chemicals. It can extend the service life of the fixture and improve the performance of the street light.

A good way for buyers to check if the supplier has a salt spray test report. This test is in accordance with ISO 9227 or ASTM B117, and the streetlights must be exposed to a salt spray environment for 1,000 hours. The lab must then check the surface for corrosion/pitting/cracks and their area. Finally, a test report will be issued to the applicant to show its rating.

Below is a brief description of powder coating.

Powder coating is a dry powder based on epoxy, polyester or polyurethane that is applied to a metal surface by means of an electrostatic spray system. It consists of three main steps:

preprocessing

Purpose: To remove oil, dust and oxides from the surface of the workpiece in order to produce a “phosphate layer” that increases the adhesion of the coating.

Electrostatic spraying
Purpose: The powder coating must be uniformly sprayed on the surface of the workpiece.

For a special workpiece (including locations where an electrostatic protection layer exists), we must use a high-performance electrostatic spraying molding machine to complete the coating.

High temperature curing

Purpose: When the powder on the surface of the workpiece is exposed to high temperatures for a certain period of time, it begins to melt, flow, and then undergoes a chemical reaction to form the high molecular weight polymer surface texture we want.

Lighting distribution issues

Lighting distribution is largely determined by the optical design of the PC, PMMA or acrylic lens. When the position, height and spacing of the streetlights are fixed, a successful outdoor lighting program often depends on the proper distribution of light from the streetlights.

If the lighting is well distributed, we can minimize the project budget by using the lowest wattage fixtures available to complete the project. This is the most energy efficient solution. If the light distribution of the street lights is not reasonable, we usually need higher wattage or more fixtures to provide even illumination of the roadway.

With LED street lights that have a good distribution of light, you can avoid the following common problems: light that looks too bright; light that shines into residential windows at night; too much light underneath the street light; too many dark spots between street lights; and roads that are not illuminated while the grass is illuminated.

That’s why we also focus on whether the streetlights have the ideal lighting distribution. This is because it is about whether you can get the project and at what cost.

Inefficiencies

The luminous flux efficiency of LED street lights is mainly determined by three factors: the efficiency of the LED chip; the efficiency of the driver; and the optical part (lens, glass).

For many purchasers, they are unable to test the luminous flux efficiency themselves. This gives them the opportunity to exaggerate product parameters. However, the configuration is not reduced enough to meet the desired lighting design. When the fixtures are finally installed, the lighting results do not meet the required lighting levels for the project. It may seem that this little trick will put your product in the same position in the market, or even more competitive. But next time, no one will support you because the trust is gone.

Packaging issues

Without good packaging, street lights can be damaged during transportation. Without well-designed labels, purchasers may face customs clearance problems at the time of importation. For packaging design, the main consideration is safety. On the basis of safety, this will try to save the consumption of environmentally friendly materials and compress the volume to help customers save freight. Of course, good packaging is also conducive to customers’ promotion and sales. As a part of packaging, labeling is also important. It can facilitate you to identify the goods. Standard labeling can help you complete customs clearance smoothly.

Concluzie

In order to carry out your public lighting project smoothly, it is recommended that you should carefully choose public lighting products with well-known LED power supply and LED chips, well-designed SPD, higher IP/IK rating, good plastic sprayer, suitable lens, complete luminaire design and good packaging. We believe that if the manufacturer is perfect in these aspects, the LED street light you choose will be very popular and successful in the market.