Five steps to improving outdoor lighting systems:
(Information adapted from the California Energy Commission)

1. Evaluate your existing lighting systems to identify any non-critical lighting. Clearly mark all circuits and switching devices for easy shut-off.

2. Install energy-efficient bulbs wherever possible (see below). Avoid using mercury vapor lighting systems and incandescent bulbs.

3. Monitor light levels and keep illumination ratios less than 10:1. (Overly bright lights can create glare and deep shadows, making it difficult to see.)

4. In parking lots, use efficient and cutoff lighting fixtures that emit no light above the horizontal or into the sky.

5. Provide reflective surfaces for lettering or other elements that need to be illuminated at night and illuminate only the lettering, not the background.

Bulb Types:

High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps are the most efficient outdoor lighting source, producing a warm, golden color. They produce 40 to 140 lumens per watt, and have a rated life of 16,000 to 24,000 hours.

Low Pressure Sodium (LPS) lamps can be used in parking lots and other utility areas where the color of the light is not important. They are highly efficient (120 to 180 lumens per watt) and have a rated life of 12,000 to 18,000 hours.

Other lamp types include compact fluorescent, metal halide and QL induction.


Lighting Controls:

There are a number of excellent automatic lighting controls that may be used to turn off exterior lights when appropriate:

1. Daylight controls, or photo sensors, used to turn off lights whenever adequate daylight is available.
2. Energy management systems and timeclocks, used to limit lighting to within certain operating hours.
3. Timer switches, used to turn lights on for only short duration.
4. Motion sensors, used to turn lights on whenever people are present.

More OUTDOOR LIGHTING RESOURCES