What Is A Pathway And Bollard Light Fixture Application?

- Aug 12, 2019-

Outdoor LED Lighting, such as LED Pathway and Bollard light fixtures, provide some excellent benefits for walkways or pathways requiring illumination because of how they GENERATE light and how they DISTRIBUTE light. Light Emitting Diodes Light generate light via a semi-conductor, as opposed to the consumption of a “fuel source” like in HID lamps.  In regards to “distributing” light, LED fixtures commonly utilize “Multi-Point” sources, meaning the fixtures have Multiple Diodes with individual optics.  When you compare this to the way most HID fixtures distributor light (with a single bulb and reflectors within the fixture), the result is light that is more EVENLY “distributed’ across a given area.

The three most common benefits of LED Bollard Lights:

Energy Savings

Common wattages for LED Bollard light fixtures often range from 12 Watts to 40 Watts, often resulting in a 40%-85% reduction in energy consumption.  The reason for this can be referenced to the GENERATION comments above, and can result in savings of up $100 per fixture per year in electricity costs.

Maintenance Cost Reduction

Again, due to the way LEDs generate light, the way they progress through their functional life is much different.  Instead of ceasing to function properly once a fuel source is significantly reduced, LED generated light output degrades VERY SLOWLY over time.  As a result the functional life (often in excess of 100,000 hours) of an LED fixture can be significantly longer than that of an HID Lamp, which in turn drastically reduces the costs for maintaining exterior flood light fixtures over a longer period of time.

Lighting Performance

Moving on to the way LED fixtures DISTRIBUTE light.  As a result of the Multi-Point design, LED Bollard Light fixtures for pathway and walkway applications often provide a very EVENLY distributed light pattern.  What this means is that light levels across a given surface will vary less as the distance from the pole or fixture changes.  Compared to HID fixtures, which often product a “bright spot” directly underneath the fixture with light levels decreasing drastically as the distance from the fixture increases.  The result, in regards to LED vs HID, is a more even foot candle distribution from the LED conversion.  In addition to the even distribution of light, LEDs are available in a range of color temperatures, and as a result provide a range of options to increase the visual perception of “brightness."

The first step is to speak with a LED lighting solutions provider that is manufacturer neutral. Why this approach as opposed to the company you may have used for the past several years?  Unless that company has a focus on providing LED solutions, it is unlikely that will have the performance focused mentality that is required to obtain the desired results of an Exterior LED Lighting project for your municipal, campus, industrial and commercial Flood Light applications. 

A crucial step in any LED project is understanding that LED Lighting is NOT a commodity.

Prior decades consisted of building facility managers and building owners evaluating product options purely on cost, assuming that all of the options in consideration were equal in quality.  This is not case with exterior LED Lighting.