Beam controlled lighting design: An approach towards optimization of road lighting design

Abstract

LED based street lighting has been introduced everywhere for energy saving aspect. The Optical Control of LED is very much possible with change of beam angles. This beam-angle based switching of LED based street lighting installations is a new area to be explored. Global research says LED is an energy saving light source. But during low or off traffic hours, portion of LED arrays of a luminaires may be switched on/off on the basis of beam-angle. The light level is reduced. The ‘beam-angle switching’definitely ensures energy saving, but the investigation of the human performance under this condition is also necessary. There is no such evidence available in favour of the effectiveness of ‘beam-angle switching’ on human performance. In this paper an experimentation based studies have been conducted to identify the driver’s response during the object detection under different lighting conditions as PRO, COUNTER and FULL GLOW of a LED luminaire. The visibility study has been carried out in a simulated road to prove the effectiveness of this beam-angle based switching from the human performance as well as energy saving point of view.