Rental Solutions -- LED light towers are not created equally
For about the last 10 years, light tower manufacturers have been trying to take cost out of the traditional towers, which resulted in a lower upfront cost, but created very expensive long-term ownership and operating costs. The key to evaluating the move to LED is an accurate long-term cost and benefit analysis.
Most of today’s LED products are an existing metal-halide base tower with low-quality, low-output LED light heads.
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Actually, the market is going backward with these types of LED units. The result is 50 percent less light output and no fuel economy. That does not provide any benefit to the user.
To move forward, the market needs LED light towers that provide benefits for the users. If you’re looking at LED light towers, look for:
- Longer life assets – quality components
- Quality canopies
- LED light output/coverage that equals or exceeds metal-halide lights
- Long running hours on a tank of fuel
- Longer service intervals
- Automation – hydraulic up mast and timers that start/stop the tower on a schedule or offer dusk-to-dawn operation
- •Green products with a lower carbon footprint through design or by using battery and solar technology
Enlightening ideas from Trime Srl
Being a long-time international market leader in innovative lighting solutions, Trime Srl, based in Northern Italy, understands what is needed by portable lighting customers. Trime works proactively with dealers and users to directly identify and solve lighting issues.
Trime product engineers have come up with new LED light towers that offer an immediate and positive impact to owners and renters.
EcoLight EL1250H light tower
The Trime EL1250H unit is a high-output diesel-powered LED tower specifically designed as a LED tower, not just another metal-halide base with low-quality LED light heads.
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| EcoLight EL1250H light tower |
The EL1250H offers several advantages:
- High quality, long-life asset – heavy gauge powder-coated steel
- LED light output that exceeds metal-halide bulbs with high-quality, high-output LED fixtures that have a 5-year, 5,000-hour warranty
- Long run time – almost 300 hours on a tank of fuel
- Hydraulics to raise the mast with no effort in 11 seconds
- 1,000-hour service intervals
- Fuel economy – refuel 1x/month vs. 5x/month with the leading competitor
- Built-in scheduler with dusk-to-dawn functionality or automatic daily start/stop
Battery-powered X-Hybrid light tower
The X-Hybrid light towers run 100 percent on built-in battery packs. The engine’s only purpose is to recharge the batteries. Advantages include:
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| Battery-powered X-Hybrid light tower |
- More than 420 hours run time on a tank of fuel
- 30-hour cycles: 22 hours on battery (no engine, no emissions), then recharges in 8 hours
- Powered by a single-cylinder diesel engine
- Built-in timer can be programmed with a cell phone
- Special DC-driven light heads
- Hydraulic auto-up mast
- Much lower emissions
- Extended run time with additional battery packs
100 percent electric EL1200E light tower
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| 100 percent electric EL1200E light tower |
The Trime EL1200E light tower is 100 percent electric. It simply plugs into a power source and offers these product advantages:
- Compact units allow transport of up to 34 units on a truck
- Runs on as little as 7.6 amps/ 1000-watt generator
- Light output that equals or exceeds metal-halide light heads
- Units can be daisy-chained
Dollars and sense
All Trime products are designed from the user and owner perspective. Internationally, rental operators have invested in these technologies and lowered their overall cost of ownership and achieved a much higher return on their capital investment.
Users are seeing substantially reduced operating costs from the units’ fuel savings and low maintenance costs. Owners and users have taken a huge step forward using Trime Srl lighting solutions. Trime offers more than 50 models (and expanding) of light towers around the world and has the ability to design/build units to meet specific needs.
Take a proactive step forward and contact FTG Equipment Solutions, the U.S. distributor of Trime Srl lighting solutions, toll-free at (855) 303-7900 or send an email to sales@ftgequipment.com to see how you can improve your current lighting solutions. As the North American market slowly moves away from lower quality metal-halide light towers and toward LED models, there are many things to consider before making the move.
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This advertorial originally appeared in the January-February 2021 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine, ©2021 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
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