Tennis court lighting - 7 Things you must know before you buy
Tennis court Lighting
You love tennis, thats why you're here of course. But the whole notion of tennis court lighting mystifies you...
Good, thats how "they" want it.
The less you know, the less you'll argue when they position themselves as the "expert" and ask for your card details.
Well, I say knowledge is power, so instead of withholding the secrets of the industry i thought I'd write them all down for everyone to see (air the proverbial dirty laundry if you will). Then, I'll follow up with the details that are actually true so you can see the great benefits to be had.
This way you can make an informed decision on what you actually need, not just what some lighting designer has told you to buy.
Now for the good part, lets get into it.
The falling tennis light pole
Most tennis clubs and at home tennis courts all have the same poles. You know the ones, they are black square and have a tendency to rust and fall over after about 10-15 years. But of course no one tells you that when you install them. They just fill a hole with concrete, chuck the pole in and put their hand out for payment. Now, I'm not saying this practice is wrong (although there are certainly better ways) the problem lies with the installer not giving the proper warnings to the customers to have the poles tested regularly (once every 1-3 years is fine).
To avoid this problem/ mitigate the chances of it happening. Ask to install a footing with rag bolts this allows the pole to be installed slightly above ground and severely lessens corrosion (it's more expensive, but how much is a squished child worth?).
Tennis court lights in Bulk
If you haven't noticed, everything is made oversees now. Not Least of all, tennis court lights. One way to create huge savings in your tennis court costs is by requesting that your lights be ordered with another larger order. The costs of shipping and manufacturing can be halved in some cases just by ordering more at the same time.
If you use a specialised lighting contractor like Roost Electrical and are willing to wait a few extra weeks for your lights, we can offer huge savings by adding your order to a larger order.
Find out more here - Tennis Court Lighting
Metal Halide Tennis court lights no longer for sale?
I've heard it everywhere. "We had a lighting installer come and look at our lights, he told us you can't get metal halide globes anymore"...
Although they are slowly being phased out and will eventually not be available, that is still years away.
Just remember It's far more profitable to have someone pay you to change over all the lights on their tennis court, rather than change one globe.
Not to say that i don't recommend that people change to LED. Of course I do, but ill get into that later.
Tennis court lighting Australian standards
One of the many things lighting designers can get carried away with is the Australian standards. Although it is necessary to adhere to the Australian standards, we also need to take into consideration the cost and what each customer is trying to achieve. There is no point going well overboard on a lighting design that will only be used once a week on a domestic property when in actual fact 250Lux would be fine for the job.
Light spillage, or what they call intrusive light is also something that is spoken about a lot in tennis court lighting circles. Intrusive lighting refers to the spilling of light (Spill light) beyond the boundary of the area to be lit. This includes the intrusion of light into bedroom windows, or neighbouring properties.
This needs to be mitigated or removed completely which can be done with the clever use of light shields and specially designed lights. Any decent lighting designer will take this into consideration when designing your lighting plan.
LED Tennis court lights, 5X more efficient?
LED tennis court lights are usually at the very least half as power hungry as their metal halide predecessors. Very commonly we will remove an old 1000W or 1500W metal halide and replace it with a 300W or 400W fitting, that's as much as a 5th of the power draw. And the best part is, they are about twice as bright... go figure?
No wonder the government is screaming for LED lights to be introduced at such a rapid rate.
Tennis court Lighting plan
When you buy lights from a sports/ tennis lighting supplier they will provide you with a customised lighting plan. A good test if they are legit or not is if they offer one for free. This usually means they have some kind of in house design software or a designer, this is a good sign (smaller non-reputable companies will farm this work out to designers for a cost).
The lighting plan should take into account the number of lights you need and the height of the poles that would work best (provided you don't already have poles, in this case they will match the lights to the existing poles). Check out these lighting designs I've had done lately for different customers.
At Roost Electrical we partner with one of the leaders in the tennis court lighting industry for our lighting designs. To get your home or club Lighting design done, simply click the link below and fill out a form so i can give you a call back in the next 24 hours.
LED Tennis Court Lights - Are they better?
The year of this writing is 2024, i think at this point we can agree that LED lights have well and truely proven themselves as the best option. However for the sake of the argument we can look into how much better they actually are. I can go on about how much better they are in terms of tennis court lighting, except i recently stumbled upon a video that shows it perfectly. Ill add it below for you to watch and see for yourself.
The Video shows less lights ( the original was 8 metal halide lights the new is 6 LED), one third of the power usage and its still over 100lux brighter...
Pretty undeniable if you ask me.
And they also achieved a far greater uniformity while having less lights. Worth every dollar they paid for it I'm sure.
Tennis court Lighting installation
If you haven't picked up on it yet, my company Roost Electrical is a premium Tennis Court Lighting installer. Although unfortunately due to logistics we only offer our services to clubs and at home tennis courts in Victoria, Australia. For everyone out of that area this is simply a guide for you and my company cannot help you further. However if you do live in Victoria and wish to have us install your lighting for you, click the link below. I'll personally get in touch over the next 24 hours and organise your FREE lighting plan and we can get your project underway.
