LED Street Light Research Project

› Testing of the submitted luminaires at the testing laboratory
for approval.
› Repeated tests of luminaires that do not meet the test standard
but now have been modified.
› Analysis of results and report to the City of Pittsburgh/RCI
research team.
› Laboratory-approved luminaires to be field tested before
certification. Manufacturers to provide three samples of each
approved luminaire to the City, to be installed by the manufacturer
or their representatives, for in-the-field evaluation by City officials
and the LED research team. Field evaluation would follow the
same procedure recommended for the initial LED business district
lighting program. Manufacturers may be requested to make further
modifications before certification.
› Final certification to be issued by City of Pittsburgh upon successful
field testing.
Modifications to the City of Pittsburgh Lighting Ordinance
It is generally acknowledged that the IES and ASHTO street
lighting standards, including the City of Pittsburgh Lighting
Ordinance which is based on those standards, do not adequately
address LED glare. Glare has been recognized by many lighting
designers and the IES as an issue, and some initial recommendations
have been put forward for comments. However, imaging
photometry has not been adopted or agreed as a legitimate
method of measuring glare and LED luminaires continue to be
manufactured without regard to the higher glare qualities of LEDs.
As the RCI research team has seen, many of the European fixture
designs with down-firing and up-firing LED sources have successfully
addressed glare. However lighting manufacturers in this
country continue to replicate HID fixtures with LED light sources,
September 2011
because the market is demanding only the cost-saving qualities of
LED retrofit lighting and not fixtures designed specifically to correct
LED glare because of their higher costs. Manufacturers claim
that municipalities are not requiring glare control.
As noted earlier in this report, uniformity of street lighting is not
producing good results for visual acuity and clarity, particularly for
older persons. Lighting standards and regulations now seek uniformity
of lighting and many recent LED installations in other cities
have exceeded the standard level of uniformity in an attempt to
produce a higher quality result.
This report recommends that the City of Pittsburgh, through its
LED lighting program and through the above additional research
and testing, undertake a program to produce qualified LED
products and subsequently revise the City of Pittsburgh Lighting
Ordinance to reflect those findings and insure good LED street
lighting.
Pittsburgh LED Street Light Research Project 99