March 16 2009, Beijing
A Quantitative Test Of Street Lamp Technology In Sweden. Field Tests show LED lighting gives better illumination and energy savings than conventional streetlights.
Introduction
Sweden has long been one of the most progressive countries when it comes to environmental protection and reducing energy consumption and typical of this is its legislation phasing out older forms of energy consuming lighting technology. One step in this process were field trials in which the city of Gutenberg commisioned JSON EL & Vagbelysning AB to instal a range of high technology lights on selected city streets and compare their performance under real life conditions against lights using conventional high-pressure sodium lamps.
Lights were installed and monitored by JSON
Gutenberg’s neighboring cities are watching these developments with interest and will take the results of the field trials as a bellwether for their procurement of new technology to meet the requirements of the Swedish government.
LED Street Lighting Trials In Gutenberg Sweden. Note the distinct cut off of the white LED lights compared to the high-pressure sodium behind. 
Technology Tested
The lights used in the test were U-Tron Lucas LED lights, Enviro Lighting LED lights, Smart-light and Philips high-pressure sodium lights. The Philips high-pressure sodium lights formed the benchmark for evaluation of the other lights. All the lamps used had a nominal rating of 100W.
U-Tron Lucas LED light installed for field trial
Monitoring light intensity
Methodology
JSON installed the lamps under test on existing lamp standards on selected streets in the city. Each lamp was then monitored for energy consumption, brightness and evenness of illumination.
Brightness and evenness of illumination were monitored by measuring the incident intensity of light, in lux, at points on a pre-determined grid beneath the lamp (see fig 1).
Figure 1: Measurement Grid
E D C
* * *
* X *
F A B
X is the location of the lamp standard – A to E are the points at which measurements were taken. Because of the differences in location and installation parameters resulting from using actual examples in the field the distances between the points had to be adjusted to yield comparable results (See Table 1.)
Table 1: Distance Between Measurement Points (meters)
U-Tron Lucus LED Enviro-lighting Smart-light Philips Standard
A-B 20m 20m 11.5m 14m
A-F 20m 20m 11.5m 14m
A-D 10m 9m 7m 8m
A-E 25m 24m 14.3m 17.5m
A-C 25m 24m 14.3m 17.5m
Results
The results were then tabulated to provide a direct comparison between the each of the lights (See Table 2)
Table 2: Light Intensity (in lux) For Each Lamp Type.
Lamp U-Tron Lucus LED Enviro Lighting Smart-light Philips Standard
Point
A 35.7 34.6 24.94 14.35
B 2.28 0.76 7.33 4.52
C 1.63 0.71 2.9 3.93
D 4.98 9.15 8.64 4.5
E 1.58 0.65 3.24 4.58
F 2.53 0.91 7.64 4.1
The power consumed by each type of light was tabulated (Table 3) for comparison with the light produced.
Table 3 Power Consumed (watts)
Lamp U-Tron Lucus LED Enviro Lighting Smart-light Philips Standard
Power 110w 100w 100w 100w
Note: Power consumption for U-Tron Lucus LED is 110w for the first two hours, thereafter the hold power consumption is 100w.
Conclusions
The quantitative results of the test show that LED based lights are clearly superior to earlier technologies such as high pressure-sodium in terms of energy consumption for a given level of brightness. Of the LED lights tested U-Tron Lucas LED had the best overall performance. Other quantitative advantages of LED lighting such as longer working life and recyclability were not part of the brief given to JSON, however they will form part of the decision making criteria for the city of Gutenberg and its neighbors.
The non-quantitative qualities of LED lighting including: the sharp cut-off which eliminates light pollution; more favorable chromatic spectra; and no strobe effect; could be clearly seen during the trial. These non-quantitative qualities are also criteria that have been taken into account in the evaluation of the trials.
About U-Tron
U-Tron (Beijing) Electronics Co. Ltd., was established in 1992 as a WOFE in Beijing, China. The company was 100% funded by investments from an American Company, China Business Associates. The main purpose was to bring U.S. developed Computer and Communication technology products to China for manufacturing and localization. Today U-Tron has 1,000 square meters of office space in the Central Business District of Beijing and an 1,800 square meter factory employing 50 + people in the Beijing Development Area (BDA) of Yi Zhuang district.
