How to Choose the Best Parking Lot Lights ?

We would like to talk about different situations before giving you guide on choosing the best parking lot lights.

Existing Parking Lot Light Replacement

Firstly, you need to measure the light pole height and figure out which watt of LED and input voltage of the line power, residing in 100-277V or 277-480VAC ?

Below is the instruction for your reference:

• height = 8ft-12ft, recommend 40W-80W LED ;
• height =12ft-15ft recommend 100W LED ;
• height = 15ft-20ft, recommend 120W 150W LED ;
• height =20ft-25ft, recommend 200W 240W LED ;
• height =25ft-30ft, recommend 300W LED ;
• height =30ft-40ft, recommend 350W 400W LED ;
• height =40ft-50ft, recommend 500W LED ;
• height =50ft-60ft, recommend 600W LED ;

And below is the equivalent of HID to LED parking lot light, you can refer to it.

After knowing the wattage and voltage, you might need to look at the finish color of the light pole, most customers would like the same color with the light for commercial places such as parking lot for auto dealership shop, that is commonly aesthetic taste for human and when pass-by visitors look up to the pole and light, it would not make people feel weired.

If the parking lot light pole is dark bronze, you can find a dark bronze color housing shoe box light. There are white pole and black poles or even silver grey light poles in market, you just need to source the exact colored light to match.

For household residence, some customer could accept black light pole and dark bronze light fixtures, as the two colors are so close in eyesight and no care at all.

Another thing to consider is about mouting bracket.

Which type of installation I should go ?

This is critically important to help you seek the proper mounting bracket to attach to the pole.

You can refer to the old light mounting if you take it down, if  you can find the same bracket, e.g. 3 inch slip fitters, that is perfect.

Most often, some might find it difficult to purchase the same mounting size, then we might need to find other ways or even reconstruct the bolt pattern on the pole.

Generally, there are three mounting brackets for shoebox fixtures, 2-3/8″ slip fitter, direct mount bracket and trunnion mount bracket.

You can refer to this article for mouting bracket details.

For round light pole with vertical top tenon or horizontal tenon, you can use the slip fitter bracket if the tenon size is less than 2.3″.

Otherwise, you might need a tenon reducer to make the tenon smaller to fit slipfitter, or use our all in one direct mount bracket instead.

The direct mount bracket can be arm mounted on round pole and square pole, an easy solution without hassle for large size light pole.

Please be noted that here is square pole “and” round pole, not square pole “or” round pole, because ours is all in one solution, while some direct mount bracket in market is not. Theirs have two different styles to fit round pole or square pole, totally two kinds of brackets, they would ask you whether to install on square or round poles, then they can send the right bracket.

Based on our communication with clients, there is wood pole also, as it is solid, direct mount bracket cannot be used, it’s better to use slip fitter bracket, if size too large, we recommend to use our 3″ 4″ 5″ tenon adapter firstly, sliding on its top.

For flat surface mount like wall mount, it is better to use trunnion mount bracket.

Besides of aboved thing, we need to consider the optical parameters as well. e.g. kelvin, light distribution and lumen efficacy.

Color temperature is measured by kelvin, if you need bright, then go 5000K (daylight white) or 5700K(cool white), if you need soft color, you can go 4000K.

Some customer would purchase parking lot light to replace dead light to match the other existing light color, then you can find the original color temperature and get one.

For light distribution patterns, there are type Type II, Type III, type IV, Type V lighting distributions for different roadway, streets and parking lots, you need to look carefully their light shapes, some are narrow spreaded, some are more forward throw, some are circular around, some are wide spreaded, or better to do a dialux simulation test with IES file, ask us for ies file if  you have capability to do so.

Regarding to the lumen efficacy, the higher , the better, that means it is more energy saving and less electricity bill, you will never regret to get an energy efficient light fixtures when days and years accumulated.

To sum up, choosing the best parking lot lights is not an easy job, it requires some knowledge before making a informed decision, you might need to compare and select 3-4 choices and then make final decision on which one can perfect your lighting projects.

If you have any question about the parking lot lights or need any technical support for LED parking lot lights, please feel free to reach us [email protected] or call us 806-680-3682