Main Factors Affecting Street Light Prices

Street light prices are a central concern for purchasers in urban construction and street lighting projects. Whether it's a municipal or commercial project, the consideration of street light pricing has a direct bearing on the cost and effectiveness of the project. Next, we'll take a closer look at why street light prices get so much attention, and the key factors that influence them.

Why pay attention to the street light prices?

Project budget constraints

With any project there are budget constraints, which delineate a range of prices that are acceptable to the purchaser. It is only within this range that the end customer will look further into the street light product. Typically, the customer will make a comprehensive comparison between products and offers from multiple manufacturers, and after a comprehensive evaluation, choose a street light with guaranteed product quality and an acceptable price range.

Demand for project standards

Different countries and projects have different standards. Some projects have clear requirements for the functionality of street lights, while others focus on the design. Within a given price range, the customer expects to get a product with a better configuration and more features to meet the specific needs of the project.

Main factors affecting solar street light prices

Street light housing

Lamp housing, as an important part of street light, directly affects the service life of street light. With the advancement of modern technology, die-cast aluminum housings have become the mainstream choice for street light housings due to their excellent performance. Its good heat dissipation, corrosion resistance and mechanical strength can effectively guarantee the long-term stable operation of street lights in complex outdoor environments.

However, due to different projects on the street lamp appearance design and functional requirements of the differences, which makes the price of the lamp shell is also different. Some of the pursuit of unique shape or high-end texture design, in the production process and mold development costs more, the corresponding lamp shell price will rise. In addition, according to the different design requirements, some street light lamp shell will use aluminum profile. Compared to die-casting aluminum shell, aluminum profiles in the processing mode and material characteristics of the differences in the use of aluminum profiles to produce light shells, material cutting, assembly and other processes will be due to the complexity of the design and the amount of different materials used and processing costs, the combination of these factors, resulting in different designs of street lamps light shell price fluctuations.

LED driver

LED driver is an indispensable key component of street light products, which directly affects the lighting effect and service life of the lamps and lanterns. LED driver types are diverse:

Classified according to the presence or absence of: can be divided into lamps and lanterns with driver and without driver.

Categorized by brand: common brands are Infineon (Inventronics), Mean Well (Mean Well), Dongling (Done), Songsheng (Sosen), Philips (Philips), and so on, there are differences in the price of different brands.

Categorized by function: including 0 - 10V, 1 - 10V drivers, and drivers with DALI, DALI2 and D4i functions. According to customer needs, will match the corresponding LED driver solutions, the more complex features, the higher brand awareness, the price is usually higher.

LED chips

The quality of the LED chips plays a decisive role in the luminous efficiency and service life of the luminaire. Under normal circumstances, LED chips have a long lifespan, unless they are poorly designed. Luminous efficiency refers to the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the LED chip, the higher the efficiency, the chip will be converted into light energy, the stronger the ability of the luminous efficiency of the lamps and lanterns also increased. Different types of LED chips have different luminous efficacy, the price is also different. Under the same brand, LED chips with high luminous efficiency are more expensive.

Other functions

Influenced by the economic development level of different countries and regions, there are differences in the demand for street light functions in different places:

Street light with photocells: with the function of automatic light sensing, it can realize the automatic light switch-off during the daytime and automatic lighting at night, which saves the users' energy and labor costs.

Street light with motion sensor function: usually with 0 - 10V driver and special motion sensor, when detecting pedestrians or vehicles passing by, it will automatically light up, and after the pedestrians or vehicles leave, it will automatically turn off in a certain period of time, which further improves the efficiency of energy utilization. The price of a street light with these features will increase as the features are added.

Additional costs to consider

Installation costs

Installation costs for street lights are greatly influenced by the complexity of the installation and the terrain, with installation costs ranging from $50 - $300 per light. Installation of street lights on flat roads in cities is less difficult, and the cost of labor and machinery is relatively stable, so the cost is at the lower end of the range. However, in mountainous areas, wetlands and other complex terrain, not only do you need special construction equipment, but you may also face transportation difficulties and problems such as setting up temporary construction platforms, which greatly increases the difficulty of the installation and the cost of labor, and makes the overall cost of the installation significantly higher, and may even exceed $300. In addition, if it involves underground pipeline detection, street light foundation reinforcement and other additional processes, will also further increase the installation cost.

Maintenance costs

The routine maintenance needs of solar street lights are low, but batteries, as a perishable component, need to be replaced every 5 - 7 years. The cost of battery replacement varies depending on the size and type of battery, and can range from about $50 - $300 per lamp. Lead-acid batteries, for example, although their initial acquisition cost is low, but the service life is relatively short and the replacement frequency is high, the maintenance cost in the long term is not low; and lithium batteries, although the unit price is higher, but with high energy density and long cycle life, the average cost in the whole life cycle may be more advantageous. In addition, in addition to battery replacement, street light routine maintenance also includes lamp cleaning, line inspection, controller debugging and other work, although the single cost is not high, but the long-term accumulation is also a non-negligible expenditure.

Shipping and transportation

For customers who purchase in bulk, especially for international orders, the transportation cost should not be underestimated. The cost of transportation fluctuates between 10 - 100 USD per unit depending on the distance and weight. From the point of view of the mode of transportation, sea freight is the most commonly used mode of international transportation, its advantage lies in the large volume and low cost, but the transportation cycle is longer, suitable for large orders with low time requirements; air freight is fast, but the freight cost is high, generally only applicable to emergency replenishment or small quantities of high-value goods. In addition, the way the goods are packaged will also affect the cost of transportation. Sturdy and reasonable packaging can protect the street lights from damage during transportation, but it will also increase the weight and volume, thus increasing the freight cost.

How to choose a cost-effective solar street light

Detailed configuration

A cost-effective solar street light must have a reasonable configuration, whose basic configuration covers key parameters such as the power of the lamps and lanterns, the capacity of the battery, the size of the solar panels, and the material of the pole. When purchasing, you need to carefully screen to avoid buying products with false capacity, and ensure that the product performance matches the price. For example, in areas with sufficient light but shorter usage time, the solar panel size and battery capacity can be appropriately reduced, and moderate power lamps and lanterns can be selected to reduce the cost; whereas in areas with insufficient light or long lighting time, the solar panel area and battery capacity need to be increased to ensure stable power supply of the street lamps.

At the same time, it is also necessary to pay attention to the compatibility of various components, such as the output power of the solar panel to match the charging demand of the battery and the power consumption of the lamps, otherwise it will affect the efficiency and service life of the overall system.

Road requirements

Selection of street light type: According to the width of the road, determine the use of single-arm or double-arm solar street lights. Narrower roads can use single-arm street lamps, wider roads are suitable for double-arm street lamps to ensure the lighting effect. For example, the width of the road within the community is generally 4 - 6 meters, single-arm street lamps can meet the lighting needs; while the width of the city's main roads is usually more than 20 meters, it is necessary to use double-arm street lamps or increase the density of street lamps to ensure that the road surface lighting without dead ends.

Determination of power and brightness: According to the spacing of street lights, select the appropriate lamps and lanterns power and brightness, to ensure that the road lighting without dead ends. Generally speaking, the larger the street light spacing, the higher the power and brightness of the required lamps. In rural roads, street light spacing can be set to 30 - 50 meters, the lamp power 20 - 30W can be; while in the city expressway, in order to protect the safety of traffic, the street light spacing is usually 20 - 30 meters, the lamp power needs to reach 50 - 100W.

Pole Height Consideration: Considering the height of the pole, it is reasonable to determine the power and brightness of the lamps and realize the balance between lighting effect and cost. The higher the height of the pole, the wider the light coverage, but it will also lead to light dispersion, so it needs higher power lamps to ensure the ground illumination. General community street light pole height of 3 - 4 meters, city road pole height of 6 - 8 meters, highway pole height may reach 10 - 12 meters, the corresponding lamps and lanterns power also need to be gradually increased.

Warranty time

Generally speaking, the warranty period of solar street light ranges from 1 - 5 years. Longer warranty period usually means that the product quality is more guaranteed, but the corresponding price will be higher. Purchasers need to weigh the relationship between warranty time and price according to their own needs and budget. If the project budget is sufficient and the stability of the street light requires a very high level, such as important municipal projects, choose the products with 5-year warranty to get a longer-term after-sales protection and quality commitment; for some temporary projects or projects with limited budget, you can appropriately reduce the warranty requirements, choose the products with 1 - 2 years warranty to control the procurement cost. At the same time, in the selection of a detailed understanding of the warranty terms, clear warranty coverage, such as whether it contains wearing parts replacement, man-made damage warranty, etc., to avoid subsequent disputes.

Brand

When choosing solar street lights, the strength and reputation of the brand manufacturer is crucial. Through the network query, user reviews, etc., in-depth understanding of the specific strength of different brand manufacturers, and compare prices, so as to select a good quality, cost-effective products. The price of big brand products may be relatively high, purchasers can also pay attention to some emerging high-quality brands, these brands in order to open the market, often under the premise of quality assurance, to provide more competitive prices and services.

Street light prices are affected by a variety of factors such as light shell, LED driver, LED chip, functional configuration, while installation, maintenance and transportation and other additional costs should not be ignored. When purchasing street lights, you need to consider all aspects of the factors, based on the project needs and budget, choose the most suitable products to maximize the benefits of the project.