How Tall is a Street Lamp?

 

Street lights, also known as light poles, lampposts, and street lamps, are raised public fixtures that provide illumination on the edge of a road or path when light is needed. Light-sensitive photocells are activated automatically at dusk, dawn, or at the start of dark weather. Street lights were first used in the city of Antioch from the 4th century to protect pedestrians from tripping on a path. The first widespread system of street lighting employed coal gas as the predominant source of fuel. Today, new street lighting technologies such as LED and high-intensity discharge lamps are used as beacon lights, roadway lights, and cycle path lights.

There are various types of street lamps. According to the light source, street lights can be divided into LED street lamps, induction lamps, energy-saving lamps, high-pressure sodium lamps, metal halide lamps, etc. According to the occasion, they can be divided into ordinary street lamps, high-post street lamps, courtyard street lamps and landscape street lamps. Others can be divided into single-arm street lights, dual-arm street lights, combined street lights, solar street lights, and so on.

Before installing the street light, you must determine the purpose of installing the street light, such as lighting or landscape. After confirming, you can choose whether to install street lights or garden lights. Generally, the street lights are more than 5 meters, and the garden lights are about 3 meters. This directly determines the height of the street lights.

1 The general height of street light poles

The height of the street lamp (the height of the street lamp pole) is generally 6 meters, 8 meters, 10 meters, 12 meters, 15 meters, etc. The specific use of the street light height depends on the width of the road surface. Generally, if the single side light is on, the height of the street light is the same as the width of the road surface. Or the height of the street light is less than 1 meter of the width of the road.

The relationship between the common LED street lamp power and the pole height is generally: 30~60W street lamp height is less than 6 meters, 60~100W street lamp height is below 8 meters, and 100~150W street lamp height is below 10 meters.

Street lamp height (street light pole height) conventional street light poles are generally 4 meters, 4.5 meters, 5 meters, 5.5 meters, 6 meters, 6.5 meters, 7 meters, 7.5 meters, 8 meters, 8.5 meters, 9 meters, 9.5 meters, 10 Meter, 10.5 meters, 11 meters, 11.5 meters, 12 meters.

The height of the garden light pole is generally 3 meters, 3.5 meters, 4 meters.

The height of the high pole lights is generally 15 meters and above.

Because the height of the street light is determined according to the actual situation, the above data is for reference only.

2 Factors related to street light poles’ heights

There are somethings you need to think about while deciding a pole height: the location requirements; traffic density; the road width and the street lamp spacing.

A. Installation of street lights must determine where the location is, for example, rural roads, county-level roads, provincial-level roads, etc. The installation height is not the same. This is mainly related to the width of the road. For example, a road that is 5 meters wide needs to be installed with a pole that is 5 meters high, and a pole that is 8 meters wide and requires a pole of 8 meters.

B. The height of the lamp must be selected according to the density of the vehicle passing through the road and the type of vehicle passing. For example, if you have a large car, you need to install a high-end street light, and you can install low-level street lights almost without a large car. Install solar street lights, the height must be determined according to the surrounding trees. The principle is that it must be well lit, and if the trees are low, the pole height can exceed the trees.

C. The specific use of the street lamp height depends on the road width. If the lamp is on one side, the height of the street lamp is the same as the width of the road surface, or the height of the street lamp is less than 1 m. The relationship between the common LED street lamp power and the pole height is generally: 30-60W street lamp height is less than 6 meters, 60~100W street lamp height is below 9 meters, and 100-150W street lamp height is below 12 meters. If the city main road is generally 4 lights side by side, the distance is about 30 meters. The city’s secondary roads are 2 lights side by side, about 35-40 meters away.

D. The specific use of the street lamp height also depend on the street lamp spacing. It is determined by various factors such as the lighting power of the LED street light, the height of the street lamp, and the width of the road. There are also villages that can buy a number of street lights according to the budget, and then calculate the spacing. In theory, the distance between LED street lamps is generally 3.8-4 times the height of the poles, and the longitudinal spacing of street lamps is generally 30 meters to 50 meters. When there are power poles or other poles, the distance is 40 meters to 50 meters. Try to combine the power supply pole with the lighting pole to save investment. If the underground cable is used for power supply, the spacing should be small, which is conducive to the uniformity of illumination, and the spacing is usually 30 meters to 40 meters.

3 Other Details you should know about street light poles

a. The pole’s height

The street light pole needs to be of the correct height so as to provide the appropriate lighting density. In most cases, street pole heights range from 9 to 14 feet. Ideally, the street light pole should provide sufficient light without there being an excessive glare.

b. Consistent intervals between lights

Although they help fight crime, street lights are meant to illuminate the way for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. However, if one area is well lit and the adjoining area pitch black, it creates room for accidents as the eyes take some time to adjust. Street lights need to be placed at consistent intervals.

c. Installation environment

You will need to pay attention to the area within which the street light poles are installed. For instance, in a coastal region, the poles are susceptible to corrosion from salt water. You might, therefore, need poles with a special finish.

d. Light distribution

Although a street could be well lit, there are factors such as trees or tall buildings that could create dark spots. This beats the objective of installing the street lights. It is vital that you keep such features in mind when designing how to place the street lights.

e. Street light poles for aesthetics

Most city spaces today are defined by the quality of their decorative fluted lighting and traffic poles. In the recent past, we’ve seen the emergence of decorative lighting poles that are used to highlight aesthetic fixtures such as statues, gardens, and fountains. This street lighting concept has an exciting charm to it and can aesthetically transform an otherwise dull city space.

f. Street light maintenance

A standard LED street light runs for about 10 to 12 hours a day, and the bulb lasts approximately 50,000 hours. As such, it’s vital to change bulbs as needed for more efficient lighting. Also, the poles used, need to be strong so that they can support the fixture.