LED Sports Lighting: Active Cooling Doubles Lifespan
- July 5, 2016
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If you’re shopping for a new sports lighting system to illuminate your facility or general purpose athletic field, you ought to know about something we call Active Cooling. Because outdoor LED lighting fixtures that use Active Cooling emit more light and weigh less, which means you have the option of commissioning a true 1-to-1 HID to LED retrofit without having to swap out or reinforce your lighting poles, which can save you a lot time, energy and money.
We all know LEDs are the future of sports lighting. But what fewer people appreciate are the challenges associated with cooling and supporting an outdoor LED lighting fixture that’s been loaded up with a bunch of electric fans. Consider more a moment, what most of us know about LEDs.
As the demand for environmentally friendly and energy efficient sports lighting systems rises, the use of LED outdoor lighting for its long life, energy savings and environmentally responsible attributes has become the popular choice in the sports lighting industry. However, in an effort to illuminate large spaces like stadiums, arenas and general purpose athletic fields, LED lights are being engineered to emit higher and higher outputs, which make effective cooling more crucial than ever.
Among the electrical components of an LED module, the power parts are most adversely affected by heat, which severely limits the lifespan of an LED bulb. Ordinary electric elements like electrolytic capacitors will see their service life cut by half when the temperature of their environment rises 10°C. Similarly, if the temperature of the environment is 10° cooler, LED lifespan doubles. Keeping LEDs cool is critical to maximizing lifespan.
By designing a sports flood with Active Cooling, as we have our SL LED Series, more lumens are emitted without compromising LED bulb lifespan. Active Cooling design also cools the fixture’s drivers by pulling the air across the LED heat sinks and circulating air in and around the fixture housing itself.
A repurposed computer fan really shouldn’t be considered Active Cooling, because these fans draw power, create heat and add weight to LED fixtures. Active Cooling fans are specifically designed for LED lightning fixtures and lifespan is 100,000 hrs, which is equal to or greater life expectancy of LED bulbs.
With the use of Active Cooling combined with onboard temperature monitoring, constant monitoring and automatic adjustment of the LEDs, Active Cooling technology gives us a sports lighting fixture that can produce and maintain a constant level of output for a period of over 70,000 hours. Let us know if you’d like more information on Active Cooling, or contact me directly if you’d like to discuss the science behind this technology.