NLPIP Specifier Reports: Streetlights for Local Roads

Between February and March 2010, the National Lighting Product Information Program (NLPIP) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center purchased six streetlights identified by manufacturer representatives as equivalent to a 100-watt (W) high pressure sodium (HPS), Type II, medium, full cutoff cobra head. One used an HPS lamp (the base case model), one used an induction lamp, and four used light-emitting diode (LED) modules. NLPIP determined how many of each type of streetlight were needed to illuminate one mile (1.6 kilometer) of a local road in an urban residential area to meet the roadway lighting design criteria specified in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) RP-8-00, American National Standard Practice for Roadway Lighting (referred to as RP-8 below). NLPIP then calculated power demand and life-cycle costs per mile for each streetlight.

Research relating to the Lighting Research Center is funded by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and various sponsors. This digital document was provided to Rensselaer Libraries by the Lighting Research Center. Use of this digital version is prohibited without the expressed permission of the Lighting Research Center.