People in the need of outdoor public lighting are starting to recognize that solar lighting is a viable option, especially since the price for solar panels has dropped significantly each year since the 1970s. Environmentally sound, easy on the wallet, and resistant to extreme weather conditions are just a few ways to describe solar parking lot lights. When they're paired with ultra-bright, super-efficient LED fixtures, these kinds of lights can help you achieve energy-saving and money-saving standards unheard of through traditional methods of lighting. Here are a few reasons why.

Reasons why Solar Parking Lot Lights are Worth it

You'll See a Reduction in Operating Cost

LED lights are up to 80 percent more efficient than competing light fixtures. A common light technology in public utility is called high-pressure sodium which, on average, saps about 50 dollars a month per light fixture. Spread that to 10 lights and suddenly your energy bill grows to 500 dollars a month.

You'll notice the change in the monthly energy bills—there won't be any. 

LEDs draw significantly less power and convert 95 percent of their supplied energy to light. Together, with solar power, they create one fantastic set of solar parking lot lights. The photovoltaic (PV) panel charges the battery during the day (yes, even in overcast situations and winter-time) and the integrated battery keeps the light burning all night, all while dodging expensive operating costs.

We'd prefer to pay zero dollars instead of 500 a month, wouldn't you?

A Lot Less Money to Install—No Trenching!

In addition to fewer bills, solar lights require no trenching to connect to grid power—trenching, believe it or not, is incredibly expensive and requires labor, equipment, and backfill fees. Often times installed solar projects are cheaper than traditional on day one because trenching takes the total cost of ownership for traditional lighting to extreme heights. If you're not convinced of the "trench expense," do a quick search online and you'll find all sorts of comments in forums about how expensive trenching is. And that's just one expense of traditional lighting. 

Since solar uses photovoltaics to draw power from the sun, there isn't trenching required. Save yourself several thousands of dollars.

Improved Safety in Parking Lots

Parking lots at night can unfortunately be heavy targets for criminals and vandals. We have scores of success stories of how solar LED lights have reduced crime and helped pedestrians feel safer at night. 

In addition to enhanced safety, LED lights help identify individuals. One of the reasons for this is because of the highly accurate color rendering index for LED fixtures. These lights have an index of 95 (the best being 100) which produces very accurate colors of lit subjects. Sodium lights have an index of around 25, meaning objects under a sodium light will not reflect their natural color. Sodium lamps cast a very yellow-tinted color that distorts accurate color representation. Red often looks black under an HPS light.

Save Some Green, and Go Green

Along with stupendous benefits of saving money long-term and keeping safety high in public areas, solar parking lot lights have significantly smaller carbon footprints on the environment. These lights aren't burning anything or releasing toxic chemicals into the air. They're pulling power from the sun and returning it to us via LED lights. Public lighting contributes to 7 percent of the world's overall carbon footprint. Imagine all the lights in all the world sapping from the world's energy reserves and adding that back into pollution. It's difficult to fathom, but outdoor lighting is a factor.

Solar LED lights are a triple whammy inside of an awesome package—they save money, protect people, and remind ourselves that we have one planet to live on. Take care of all three problems by going solar today. Contact us to learn more and see how you can take advantage of everything that the sun has to offer you.