If you own or manage a business like restaurants or hotels, where you need a car park, then you have to responsible in the overall satisfaction of your customers by providing the best and quality services. One of the services that is often ignored is the parking lot because some commercial areas do not have the proper lighting system, which is a factor that makes consumers uncomfortable. Let’s say that this is due to the daily energy consumption, installation cost and maintenance, but as an entrepreneur you should have known about this matter already.
You have to be a responsible businessman, so you should have planned what lighting system to install, and if you are worried about the cost of energy, then you must check on the ones powered by solar. You may not be noticing this, but it is now used in the streets because of its great benefits and advantages. In my opinion, entrepreneurs can afford to install this type of lighting system in their commercial area because the parking lot is not usually as long as the streets, which means that you won’t need too many lamps.
Keep in mind that you should not overdo the installation of a commercial solar lighting system, since it also needs distancing and you should have ample space in your car parking lot for the customers. Anyway, if this is a new project for you, then you will surely want to know about what exactly do you need here because it seems like solar lights are all the same. Well, it may sound like that, but installing this on your parking lot may be different because this is not a street, but a place for your business.
Mounting
Thinking about your business and how these lamps will look at your parking lot, is supposed to be a part of your marketing plan. Therefore, you have to consider how it must be mounted.
Now, what do you think will be more fascinating for a commercial area, would it be a pole or the one mounted on the wall? It would be great to list down your options with fixtures as well as the brightness of the lamp and where it would be located.
PIR
To avoid having worries about how often you have to change the batteries and recharge it, this must be designed with a PIR or Passive Infrared sensor, which is trending nowadays, thought expect it to be more expensive than the previous models. You can get more information from https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/passive_infrared_sensors.htm.
Anyway, this sensor will be very helpful in saving the battery life. Through the infrared, the PIR will be able to sense motion of objects, having an absolute zero temperature, which emits heat energy.
Battery
You are already aware that when using a solar lighting system in your parking lot, it means that you will be using the energy that the PV cell can collect from the sun. This will be stored in the battery as a way to charge it and use this as an electricity for the lighting needs.
What you must do, is to make sure that you can get a large capacity for storing energy. Let’s say that you will even need a great amount of mAh or milliampere hour of capacity. You need this because you need to keep the lamp on for several hours.
This is very important, since it has something to do with the safety and satisfaction of your customers. Again, this is not merely about lighting the parking lot, but also with the convenient services you can offer.
LED
Light Emitting Diodes or LED is different from the traditional lighting system that we used to see from various light fixtures. LED is very common today because it is more efficient, since these do not burn out. Instead, it slowly dims or dies over a period of time, which means that the lumen degrades.
Actually, it has a diode, composed of a tiny microchip that is producing the light. Therefore, the degradation process is very slow and it will take years before this happens, especially with LEDs because it was designed to save energy. Check this site to learn more about LED.
Luminaire
Do not forget to check on the luminaire and its efficiency rating because this matter has to be clear. Make sure that the guide created by federal agencies like the FEMP or the Federal Energy Management Program is followed, especially this will be installed and used in a commercial area. The luminaire will be a good way to help you determine how the area will be lighted.
It is also important to know the LER or the Luminaires Efficiency Rating because this is where you will see the amount of generated light and consumed energy. It would be great to also check on the level of illumination because this determines the amount of light, coming from the lamp down to the surface. Anyway, the recommended amount should be met to avoid violations.