The costs of lighting changes from year to year. As technology gets better and demand increases, prices drop, effcicieny increases, and everyone is in a win-win situation. With this ever changing landscape comes misinformation, which is why we have put together this post.

This post is going to lay out the true tennis court lighting costs for 2017. On top of that, we are going to go over some tips and things to be on the look out for in regards to choosing the best light fixture for your tennis court that will save you money and produce the best illumination possible.

This post will be broken into two parts; the average costs that are associated with the actual light fixtures themselves and the costs associated with them. Then, the average costs of powering your lights and how to achieve a higher return on investment by being a smart buyer.

Let’s start off with defining what exactly tennis court lighting is, and why it matters.

For starters, tennis court lighting is the application term for high mast lighting. High masts are the other technical terms, there are many that go far beyond the scope of this post. But, we think you should know the definition of lumens as we use it quite often. Technically, a lumen is the SI unit of luminous flux. Although that doesn’t say much, just know that lumens, in simple terms, is the amount of light being emitted by a given fixture. The more lumens, the more light you will have being output.

Now that we have a basic understanding of what tennis court lights actually are, we can get into the real costs of tennis court lights. Hopefully, these costs allow you to be aware of all the options and give you a better understanding on how to go about selecting the proper lighting technology for your court.

The costs associated with your tennis court / retrofit kits are typically much cheaper)

4. Quantity of fixtures needed

5. Your tennis court lux requirements or desires

As with any industry, what brand you buy from and what technology you buy is going to be the biggest cost variable. The most important thing to keep in mind is not only the initial costs of a fixture, but also the costs of running such fixtures over the span of it’s lifetime.

If, for example, you have one light that consumes 1000 watts of light and another that consumes 400 watts but the first one was only $500 and the second one was $1,000, which would you buy all else equal? Well, assuming they both output the same amount of light it actually makese sense to go with the second light, even though it costs twice as much.

Why you ask?

Because the cost to operate the 1000 watt light is more than double that of the 400 watt light, which over the lights lifespan can actually end up costing you much more to run the 1000w light.

These numbers aren’t entirely fictionary either, in fact; they are very close to real life examples we have seen when other tennis courts convert to LED technology from metal halide or HPS. What we haven’t described in the above example though is other cost saving benefits that LED has besides just being more efficient; but we will get to that later.

As for actual costs, they can vary far too greatly for us to list here. It all depends on what lighting technology you choose (think LED, metal halide, etc), which company you buy from, the quantity you need, if you are retrofitting or fully replacing your fixture, and what your lumen output requirements are.

A quick note on retrofitting or replacing in simple terms; retrofitting is typically cheaper for a couple of reasons. Retrofitting in short, is the process of replacing only the luminaire source from your fixture, instead of the entire fixture itself. LED vs metal halide cost to run in our example, the cost analysis can be run between any technologies in the same way. As you will see though after comparing metal halide’s  cost to run vs LED, that LED is far more efficient and costs significantly less to run.

Let’s get into the example:

Let us assume you have 10 lights. Currently, your high masts are metal halide and use 1,000 watts per fixture. Now, let’s assume you are looking for a more efficient technology and you come across LED high mast lights. You find a comparable light which will output the same amount of light (or lumens), but only consumes 400 watts per fixture.

In total, the metal halide lights are consuming 10,000 watts (assuming you have 10 lights) and the LEDs would be using only 4,000 watts if installed. That is 2.5 times less energy being consumed, which can visibility lead to huge savings.

This reduction from 1,000 watts to 400 watts per fixture in the metal halide to LED conversion in exactly why sports field, including tennis courts, are converting to LED.

Extra Tips for Reducing Costs

Conclusion

Hopefully the explainations of where the cost of tennis court lights are in 2017 have been thorough. While it’s impossible to give exact prices for every scenario, we hope this has been a starting point to your tennis courts lighting system.

Considering making some changes regarding the electricity in your home? Before you buy a brand new electric panel for your Bethesda home, there are some important details you should know about sizing.

Ready for a heavy-up or electrical panel installation in your home or business? Trust the certified electricians at Kolb Electric to bring you the best in dependable quality and satisfaction!

First off, there are some terms and important points we should hash out before you start making electrical purchases. Generally speaking, when a homeowner is considering a heavy-up for their electric panel they’re either trying to improve home electrical safety or trying to do electrical updates to modernize a home.

If you’re looking to increase the safe capacity of current in your home, you’re looking for a panel upgrade, or heavy-up, which you’ll need to ask your trusted electricians about to ensure you get the right service for your needs.

And if we’re talking about improving safety, you’re probably looking for breakers to match new wiring, or GFCI outlet/breaker wiring to reduce risks of ground faults associated with sources of water near outlets. Breakers should always match the amperage of the wire they are servicing, by the way, though your electrician should be the one to handle this. But, having said all of this, if you’re looking for an electric panel…

When you’re talking about the “size” of an electrical panel installation, what you’re actually referring to is the amperage capacity of the panel. This is the measurement of electricity the panel can safely accommodate in your home. It is a common misconception that the panel actually determines the amount of electricity that comes into your home. To alter that, you need to seek a heavy up!

To determine the size of the panel you need, a comprehensive list of all appliances in use or planned to be used will need to be created. The capacity of your panel will directly correlate to the amount of power routinely used within your home. In all honesty, to do this accurately, your best bet is to work with a trusted electrician! We have all of the training, knowledge and skill needed to guide you to making the right choice for your home electrical needs.

Ready to beef up the safety and function of the electricity in your home? Contact the certified electricians at Kolb Electric today to get the electrical panel installation services you need!