Field and Stadium LED Lighting
Lights are one of the indispensable parts for any field game. A good flood lighting system invigorates the baseball game and enhances the performance of the players. Most commonly, field lighting consists of metal halide, mercury, halogen or HPS lamps. Upgrading to LED lighting can save up to 80% in energy costs after replacing the old fixtures.
Although, the initial cost of metal halide, mercury, halogen or HPS field lighting may be less, LED’s will actually save you more money in the long run. For instance, Halogen lumen is 10 times less than LED. This means you will need 10 times more luminaires if you choose to install halogen. A single 500 watt halogen baseball stadium flood light will cost you around $40 to $80, and a 500 watt LED costs $400-$500. You will need to buy 10 x 500W halogen to produce the equivalent brightness of 1 x 500W LED. The overall cost will be nearly the same. By switching to LED field lights you can save approximately $5000 monthly, $60,000 annually on your electricity bill.
LED’s also have a much longer lifespan. Halogen field lights will need to be replaced every one to two years, since their brightness declines quickly. This will make the field too dim to play in at night, according to the Little League Lighting Standards. With LED, the brightness level can be maintained at a very high level for decades. LED’s lifespan is nearly $80,000 hours of life.
According to the Little League Lighting Standards: LED light sources can have a much greater lifespan than metal halide light sources with significantly less lumen depreciation over typical sports lighting operating hours. For example, a metal halide light source may reach 70% lumen maintenance in as little as 2,100–3,000 hours while an LED light source may take 100,000 hours or more.
Read more here: Little League Safety Standards
In accordance with the little league lighting standards, a few things should be considered when upgrading your field lighting design.
1. Lux Level required
For the standard little league competitions, the illuminance should have at least 540 lux for infield , and 320 lux for outfield.
2. Lighting Uniformity Standard
The best lighting system should have as high uniformity as possible to avoid undesirable dim areas. The required uniformity is 0.5 for infield and 0.4 for outfield (minimum to maximum ratio).
3. Flicker-free Lighting
Flicker- free LED lighting can support high-speed cameras.
4. CRI
According to the guidebook, the CRI of the lighting is at least 65 for baseball stadiums.