What is Turtle-friendly Lights & Why Use Them
Sea turtle friendly lights or coastal wildlife lights is one of the main types of outdoor lighting applications specialized in recent years. According to the report, nearly 90% of sea turtles nesting in the U.S. occur in Florida. The lights are in amber color and widely used in coastal areas to prevent sea turtles from mistaking artificial lights as natural light.
Below in the figure shows various types of turtle-friendly lights to project lights in different areas. For example, Flood lights, wall packs, area lights, canopy lights and bollard lights are all designed to be turtle friendly.
The turtle-friendly lights play an important role for hatchlings. After hatching in the sand for one to two months, the emerging baby sea turtles normally crawl to the brightest horizon and back to water. In natural condition, the ocean is illuminated by moon and stars, so hatchings use the illumination as a reference to indicate the direction of water. However, human activities bring artificial lights, which become a disaster for the sea turtles. The artificial lights can confuse and disorient sea turtles, and cause them to go in the wrong direction. To protect sea turtles, turtle-friendly light becomes a must in coastal cities.
How LED Turtle-friendly Bollard Light Works
The LED turtle-friendly bollard lights can be used anywhere close to coastal beach areas, including pathways, parking lots, building entrance, and residential backyard. The turtle-friendly bollard light can not only provide safety to the surrounding area such as passing by pedestrians and vehicles, but also keep the normal lifestyle of sea turtles. The amber color fixtures use narrower spectrum with omitted blue light. In that way, baby sea turtles would not be misdirected by the blue wavelength and crawl to the wrong direction.
SOLTECH Commercial Solar LED Bollard Light
Luckily, the LED solar bollard light SUNDIAL designed and manufactured by SOLTECH comes with a turtle-friendly version as well. Our SUNDIAL is a perfect fit for coastal wildlife lighting. They can be installed along the pathway of the beach park, while it will not bring light pollutants and interfere with nesting and hatching patterns.
Living a sunflower lifestyle, SUNDIAL was designed with a smart solar tracking system. SUNDIAL solar panel has a full 360 design, which enables the solar panel to adjust the tilt angle automatically and maximize the intake of the solar energy. Compared with traditional solar bollard lights, SUNDIAL increased charging efficiency by at least 50%. The advanced SUNDIAL can be a perfect retrofit option to replace on-grid LED, older HID, and even metal halide fixtures.
Top 4 Benefits of SUNDIAL
SUNDIAL solar bollard light comes with three heights: 13’’, 24’’, and 42’’ to meet different lighting purposes. For example, when considering using bollards close to the river, you may want to reduce the influence of the light on wildlife. In that case, the low height bollard can be a better option as it reduces the light spill to surrounding areas. However, if the bollard is used for entrance of a facility, the low height bollard light can be blocked by nearby vehicles or trees and generate temporary darkness in a scheme. As a result, you can select 24’’ or 42’’ bollard to meet your requirements.
There are four main features that make SUNDIAL stand out from other solar bollard lights.
- Smart Solar Tracking System
- Full 360 design to track full sunlight source
- Smart learning system: predict & adjust to ensure optimal lighting performance
2. Multifunctional & Flexible
- Provides both ground mount and wall mount options, flexible for all environmental conditions
- Three heights to meet various urban site planning needs
- Perfect choice for both residential and commercial use. Fit in any pedestrian applications
3. Cost Saving
- No trenching or wiring costs
- Simplify landscaping electrical design
4. Durable
- IK10 Polycarbonate PC protective light cover, extremely safe & vandal proof
- Highest IK rating; Avoid physical damage (especially the precarious weather of the coast rife with hurricanes, wind, rain, and salt) & Provide the top-rated impact protection
- Round shape design minimizes the accumulation of dust and grime on solar panel
Important Bollard Lighting Design Tips:
After selecting SUNDIAL, there are several important lighting design tips to remember in order to get the best performance as per the project needs. In general, local code requirements, fixture height, and personal preferences of the client are three main factors that determine the spacing and layout design of bollard lights.
As SOLTECH provides bollard light in three different heights, people should integrate the height with real use cases. For example, for a garden pathway or residential entrance, the low height fixtures might be a great option as it reduces the light spill to surrounding nature. While for driveway or city landscape, higher bollard is a better choice as it divides vehicles and pedestrians while providing proper illumination. In these applications, high bollard light ensures there will not be temporary darkness generated by vehicles passing by.
In general, Compared with conventional solar bollard lights, SUNDIAL increases charging efficiency by at least 50%. The SUNDIAL solar bollard light is a great option for outdoor lighting in multiple applications, including pedestrian lighting, residential and commercial pathway lighting.
Reference:
2. https://www.sunny.org/beaches-and-beyond/sea-turtles/
3. Brost, B., B. Witherington, A. Meylan, E. Leone, L. Ehrhart, and D. Bagley. 2015. Sea turtle hatchling production from Florida (USA) beaches, 2002-2012, with recommendations for analyzing hatching success. Endangered Species Research 27:53-68.
4. Witherington, B., R. Herren, and M. Bresette. 2006. Caretta — Loggerhead Sea Turtle. In: Biology and Conservation of Florida Turtles, P.A. Meylan, Ed. Chelonian Research Monographs 3:74-89.
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