What Determines the Cost of Football Field Lighting?

The lighting of the football field is very important for players and fans. The game can be held day and night. Most of the tournaments are, however, interesting to watch at night. Therefore, the stadium should have excellent lighting. Many people think that football stadium lights are expensive. Yes, the price can be very expensive, but you don’t have to go bankrupt. When you perform a proper cost-benefit analysis, you will not incur additional costs. If you do not have the correct information about effective lighting, you will spend a lot of money. For various reasons, it is important to light up the fields. For football players, they need a clear vision to perform well. This guarantees their safety. The last thing you want to get on the battlefield is to see the trajectory of the football. Dim lights can cause a lot of damage. The audience also needs to watch their team. Otherwise, how will they cheer for the players? They will also feel safe when they sit down and enjoy the game. In case of any incident, the authorities can know the source of the disturbance.

Factors that affect the lighting cost of football field

The cost of setting up an adequate lighting system depends on certain factors. You can either incur extra charges or lower prices depending on the following.

1 The size of the field

Before buying lamps, you must first consider the size of your field, so that you can know what the approximate budget is and how to save it. Therefore, if you have a large area, then you will need a large budget. This is because the larger the field, the more light is needed, and your field can get enough lighting. More lights can make the entire field of vision brighter.

Generally speaking, the cost of small fields is low, which will require a small budget. The lighting area does not need much spotlight. However, in any case, the light should not be dazzling, because it will affect the line of sight, affect the performance of the athlete or the visual experience of the audience. Therefore, the uniformity of the field is very important.

What is light uniformity?

Apart from providing adequate & appropriate brightness for baseball players, we also need to ensure that the illumination has high enough uniformity. High uniformity means that the brightness of each spots on the ground is almost the same. The ways to quantify is to looking at the ratio between minimum lux : average lux or minimum lux : maximum lux. Theoretically the maximum value is 1.

For the recreational indoor softball field and batting cage, having uniformity of 0.5 to 0.6 would be appropriate. Just get in touch with us to acquire much information. Our lighting designer will help.

 

2 The height of the mast

Softball fields with higher masts will require a lot of lighting. The height may be about 15 to 50 meters. When the pole is high, the light will not reach the ground faster. It has been lost in the air before touching the surface. Therefore, the price of buying and installing lights will definitely exceed the roof. Installing them is also a challenge. The height may cause flicker. The amount paid will be high. Football diamonds with short masts will be economical. First of all, the cost you will spend on purchases is quite low. The lamp requires less power. Due to the fast installation speed, your costs will also be reduced.

3 Type of lights

Sports fields are typically lit up with high intensity discharge (HID) lamps which include, but are not confined to, fluorescent, sodium (HPS), metal halide (MH), mercury vapor (HgV), and low pressure sodium (LPS). While high wattage HID lamps produce a substantial amount of light, the lamps can be large (e.g., over 300 mm long and over 200 mm in diameter) and frequently necessitate large and complex optical devices to harness the light and direct it towards the target area; this increases cost and size to the luminaire.

LED has made great efforts to reduce the cost of sports lighting systems. Solid-state light sources are known for their energy efficiency and durability. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are an appealing alternative light source since they have a much much longer operating life than HIDs (e.g., tens of thousands of hours) and an efficacy equivalent to or exceeding HIDs. LED lights can be dimmed, a desired light level can be consistently obtained through the useful lifetime of the lamps.

Although the initial cost of LED lights is very high, generally 30W LED lights can replace 100W metal halide lights, and LED lights have almost no maintenance costs, and their lifespan is generally up to 50,000 hours. In the long run, LED lights are the brightest and most economical.

Therefore, LED is the best to buy. Even though you will pay dearly, you will have stable lights for a long time.

4 Use of the field

Different uses require different brightness, if the field is only used for some entertainment activities or training, you do not need too much light. For specific information, you can refer to the table below.

(Information from Mecreeled)

5 The Origin of the manufacturer

Sellers of lighting equipment may come from China, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. When you buy in bulk, the price in China is the cheapest. Thanks to the digital world, you can order goods online. Some of the best industries have warehouses in the US and Europe, for example, Chinese manufacturing companies.There is no doubt that lighting materials in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom are expensive. The cost of buying lamps in these three countries will be much more expensive than buying in China. This is because factory rents, labor costs and material prices are high. The money you consume will be only a few of the real value of the lamp.

Illuminating a football field is not a simple matter, especially a professional football field. Tachyonlight can provide you with suitable LED lights for you and free lighting solutions that you need. If you have any needs, please contact us immediately.