LED Tennis Court Lighting Upgrade - Illawarra Tennis Club

LED Tennis Court Lighting Upgrade - Illawarra Tennis Club - Rockdale

Night tennis social play and competitions is becomming increasingly popular in Australia particularly with the inclusion of day light saving and the cooler hours of the evening. Inevitably players will continue to play and compete well into the night up to curfew hours of around 10pm necessitating the installation of good quality tennis court lighting to ensure good tennis ball, player and court visibility.

Of the utmost importance is also the uniformity of the lighting across the tennis court so there are no dark spots or light spots. Rather then tennis court lighting should be near to perfectly even. Gone are the days where one or two metal halide tennis court lights blow causing very dark spots. The old uniformity requirements of 0.6 with metal halide tennis court lights are also now out of date such that tennis clubs should not settle for anything less that a uniformity of 0.8. You will see in our lighting designs with our specialised asymmetric beam tennis court lights we achieve uniformities of around 0.9 or greater making for near perfect lighting across the tennis courts where 1.0 is perfect.

At the end of the day or should we say at the end of the night your tennis club can now achieve superior lighting effects using purpose built Professional Series LED tennis court lights. This in turn improves tennis player and spectator experience. Attracts more tennis players and more competition level tennis matches to your club due to being able to offer a superior night time tennis experience. Therefore, a tennis club with better night time tennis court lighting becomes more vibrant with increased use and increased memberships and revenue for the tennis club.

With our specalised tennis court lights and computer simulations we can take the guess work out of your tennis court lighting design and obtain the best result for your tennis club and players. In all cases we can improve the uniformity and quality of light and usually the intensity or amount of light on the tennis courts. With our reduced light spill and light glare designs we can ensure more light on the tennis courts and less light on the neighbours, thereby complying with local council regulations for obtrusive lighting.

Of final importance is the saving in electricity of up to 80% which will no doubt become increasingly important with more night time tennis play and the increasing cost of electricity.

Illawarra Tennis Centre Rockdale

The design brief for the LED Lighting Upgrade at Illawarra Tennis Club at Rockdale was to achieve maximum lighting possible and greater than club competition level lighting which is a minimum avergage maintained illumination of 350 lux and a minimum average uniformity of 0.6. The club consists of 9 tennis courts with 4 poles per court. I suggested we could achieve an average illumination level of almost 500 lux on each tennis court equivalent to Professional Level Pro Competition Tennis Court Lighting using 4 x 600W specialised asymmetric beam tennis court lights (LITE-EL-600-TC), also now available in 750W, or up to 1500W using some of our other Sports Flood Light models.

There was some discussion about adjusting the height of the poles so from the Tennis Court Lighting Simulation we found the most optimal height to be 9.3m, which produced outstanding avergage illumination levels > 500 lux and record breaking uniformity levels of 0.87 to 0.94. Note >0.6 is the standard with 1.0 being perfect.

As mentioned in some of the other projects the Pro Sport LITE-EL-600-TC LED Tennis Court Light uses a specialised asymmetric lens system to project the light forwards and down directly onto the court in a rectangular pattern. The patented lens system allows the light to be mounted in the fully downward position straight out at 90° from the pole. This specialised Tennis Court Lighting lens system reduces light spill and glare thereby improving spectator comfort and light polution.

In addition, at 90,000 lumens each or 150lm/W the LITE-EL-600-TC LED Tennis Court Light is class leading given the focused beam pattern and energy savings of up to 80%.

The tennis court design simulation is shown below.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS:

Based on your current lighting levels measuring an average of approximately 200 lux we estimate a lighting increase of:

- 157% increase in light levels (~515 lux).

- Improved uniformity (evenness) of light across tennis courts of 0.87 to 0.91 for the playing area, note Tennis Australia Standard is minimum 0.6.

- 45% electricity savings per year and 11 tonnes per year reduction in Green House Emissions.[1]

PRO SPORT TENNIS COURT LIGHTS

- Includes site visits to assist with installation issues and accurate set up including alignment data.

- 5 Year manufacturer warranty.

- Proven track record as per reviews and references.

- High quality componentry including Philips LUXEON LEDs and Mean Well ELG series drivers.

LED LIGHTING ADVANTAGES

- Virtually zero obtrusive lighting as the Pro Sport Tennis Court Light asymmetric beam allows the lights point down at approximately 0° reducing light spill and light glare in neighbouring areas.

- Instant turn on (metal halides can take 15- 20 min to reach their normal operating temperature and light output).

- Maintained light level within ~ 10% over life of the system (the metal halide loses up to 50%).

- Longer System Life Span of ~ 100,000 hours.

- 5-year manufacturer warranty.

- 6 - 10 KV SPD Power surge Protection for lightning strikes and other power surges.

- Greater reliability and zero maintenance for potentially 100,000 hours.

- Precise colour temperature selection enhances playing environment and broadcast.

LIGHTING SIMULATION RESULTS

The lighting simulation results for the LITE-EL-600W-TC tennis court lights exceeds the recommended Australian Standards for Club Competition & Commercial Tennis Court Lighting (see attached lighting simulation report for full details). Note a Light Loss Factor (LLF) of 0.88 was used but real life measures will most likely be closer to 0.95 or greater.[2]

CONCLUSION

The Pro Sport Tennis Court Lights improves on the old metal halide lighting technology by providing electricity savings, reduced maintenance costs, and a massive improvement in lighting levels and uniformity. The maintenance and energy savings alone will eventually pay for your LED lighting Upgrade.

[1] CO2 emission from electricity generation, average Figure for Vic = 1.22 Tonnes/MWh. Based on operation hours of 12.5hrs per week for 40 weeks of the year.

[2] The 12% is mainly due to dust build up and is a conservative estimate, in reality 5-10% is more than adequate as the LEDs have very little light loss over time.

Site Area:

Tennis Court Site Area Dimensions - LED Lighting Simulation Light Loss Factor = 0.88, ULR (Upward Light Ratio): 0.5%.

LED Tennis Court Lighting 3D Rendering

LED Tennis Court Lighting Colour Rendering

led-tennis-court-lighting-colour-rendering-illawarra.jpg

led-tennis-court-lighting-3d-rendering-scale-illawarra.jpg

LED Lighting - Tennis Court 1 Playing Area - LED Lighting Levels

Note the simulation results were calculated at reduced pole height of 9.5m which was initially proposed. However, it was decided that pole height would be maintained at 12m to reduce costs leading to an ultimate average of ~ 450 lux, which is illustrated in the photographs.

Tennis Court 1 - LED Lighting Levels - Average Illumination = 518 lux, Uniformity = 0.87, Min/Max = 0.77