Manufacturers offer a variety of mobile light towers with options that allow workers to choose exactly what they need, regardless of the job site. In recent years, technology has shifted the market towards mobile light towers that are more environmentally friendly, safe and provide a greater return on investment. End users also aim to maximize uptime so the longer the light tower can run before refueling, the better.
One of the most prominent trends in the light tower industry today is the shift from metal halide lamps to LED lighting. While customers have been slow to adopt LED bulb light towers, a few people have started requesting them in recent years.
While manufacturers agree that LED light towers have several advantages over metal halide light towers, the biggest advantage is fuel efficiency, says Eric Massinon, business development manager at Chicago Pneumatic. Because LEDs require less power than metal halide lamps, they provide better fuel economy, making the total cost of ownership much lower.
Cost of Ownership Benefits
According to Erin Brown, senior product specialist at Doosan Portable Power, customers will see a return on their investment between six months and one year after switching from metal halide to LEDs.
“This is where it saves,” he says. “LEDs use half the fuel. They're more expensive, but the payback to the end user is the amount of fuel needed to run the light tower."
To put the differences into perspective, Massinon says Chicago Pneumatic offers a 6kW light tower with a 100-liter fuel tank, providing 4,000 watts of metal halide lighting for 50 hours. However, after turning off the metal halide bulbs for the LEDs, the tower runs for 150 hours.
"Same 100-liter fuel tank, but triple the runtime," says Massinon.
A metal halide bulb must reach a temperature of several thousand degrees before it can work, meaning it can take up to 15 minutes to reach full power. LED bulbs, on the other hand, do not require intense heat to work. They can be switched on and off instantly, providing customers with a more efficient lighting solution.
"Metal halide lights take a while to warm up to full brightness," says Massinon. "When you turn them off, users have to wait for the lights to cool down, sometimes up to 10 minutes, before they can turn them back on."
Massinon adds that metal halide bulbs are more vulnerable to breakage if they are not cooled before the tower is moved.
"Metal halide bulbs in stationary applications can last 6,000 hours or more," he says. “However, in portable mobile light towers, life expectancy is often much lower depending on how the tower is handled, as heat weakens the bulb. There's no way to tell how long it will take."
An LED bulb typically guarantees 10,000 hours of use at full light output, while metal halide bulbs lose 50 percent of their light output in the same time frame.
Brown expects all light towers to be superseded by LED lights in three to five years. Manufacturers are also developing systems to improve safety when operating their light towers.