Durability and long life — LEDS in lighting fixtures can provide over 100,000 hours in solar applications. In comparison, an incandescent light bulb lasts approximately 1,000 hours.
Energy and maintenance savings — can be powered by a solar array and require little maintenance because of their long life.
Better quality of light – provide more than twice the luminous efficacy (lumens per watt) of incandescent lighting.
Safer — LED systems are low voltage and are generally cool to the touch (energy is delivered in the visible spectrum).
Smaller flexible light fixtures — resistant to vibration and shock and because of their size LEDS are useful for lighting small spaces.
Durable — LEDS have no filament to break and can withstand vibrations.
Environmentally friendly – LEDS do not contain mercury unlike florescent and mercury vapor lighting, which is considered hazardous to the environment.
Not all LEDS are the same
LEDS come in many form factors. These affect their operation.
LEDs promise to transform the way we light the world
That promise is found in LED’s ability to save energy, reduce maintenance costs, and change the way we look at our entire lighting infrastructure. LED system performance depends not only on the performance of individual components, but also on how they interact. Poor integration can lead to premature failure of LED-based lighting systems. Sol LED systems optimize integrated system performance, which means our LED systems will live up to their promise of long life, energy savings and reduced maintenance.
Sol is at the forefront of the LED revolution for street lighting
Using our extensive experience in solar lighting, our engineers have developed a family of LED products, which are specifically designed to capture the power and efficiency of this advanced solid-state technology.
Delivering Performance and Dependability
The unique characteristics of LED performance have been addressed with specific heat dissipation features. Because LEDS last longer, the labor and expense of multiple lamp changes is reduced. Maintenance costs are lower and this provides reduced total cost of ownership.
LEDS are solid-state devices which contain no mercury and last five times longer than metal halides – helping to reduce environmental waste.
Lumens per watt has long been the standard for measuring the efficiency of lighting fixtures. Sol’s latest Quad Series delivers the most lumens per watt of any LED configuration. Since 1990, Sol has had a solid reputation of providing reliable solar lighting products. Our engineers are experts at maximizing light output.
What makes LEDS so great?
- LED lighting is increasingly used in a variety of lighting applications because it offers many benefits, including: LonLong Life
- Highly Efficient
- Energy Savings
- No warm up time
- Better quality of light output
- No hazardous disposal – unlike CF, CCFL, LPS and HPS which contain mercury
- Intrinsically safe
- Durable LED lighting systems have already proved to be very effective in indicator applications where brightness, visibility, and long-life are important. Outdoor lighting applications such as street lighting, parking lot lighting, and security lighting can benefit as well.
What is the life of an LED?
LEDS generally do not fail by burning out but slowly reduce light output over time. As solid-state devices, they will continue to operate even after 100,000 hours (solar applications). Comparisons of lumen maintenance near the end of the rated life for traditional light sources (i.e., incandescent, fluorescent, HID) have shown that with the exception of metal halide lamps, these traditional light sources usually have at least 80% of their initial light output by the time they have operated 10,000 hours. Furthermore, when light level reductions occur over time, people tend not to notice them until the light level reaches 80% of the initial output. This is the basis for “useful life” for lighting sources.
What is an LED lighting system?
As with other light source technologies, such as fluorescent, CCFL and HID, lighting systems using LEDS can be thought of as having a light source (typically the combination of LEDS that form the light source itself), a ballast (for LEDS it is often called a driver), and a luminaire (the fixture).
LEDS require a specific electrical polarity. Applying voltage in reverse polarity can destroy them. A slight change in voltage can result in very large changes in current. Since the light output of an LED is proportional to its current, LEDS can be driven at various light outputs. If the resulting current exceeds limits recommended by the specific LED manufacturer, the long term performance of the LED can be affected resulting in shorter useful life. This means that many LEDS can produce a high light output, but have a very short life.
An LED driver performs a function similar to a ballast for discharge lamps. It controls the current flowing through the LED. Most LED drivers are designed to provide current to a specific device or array. It is very important that a driver be matched to the specific device.
LED systems are rated in terms of luminous intensity in candelas (foot-candles) rather than light output in terms of lumens. Luminous intensity is a function of the angle from which an LED is seen, so this value should be considered carefully when used to characterize light output of a particular LED source. Two LEDS with the same luminous flux output can have very different peak luminous intensities, if they are designed to produce different beam angles.
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