Parking Lot Lights Out? The Usual Causes and What a Fix Involves
Our technician working on parking lot pole lighting from a lift. Pole work needs the right equipment to be done safely, which is why it is a job for a commercial electrician.
A dark lot makes customers and employees uneasy and puts the property owner at risk. The good news: most outages come down to a short list of causes, and finding the right one first keeps the repair bill down.
The usual causes
- Photocell or timer. The sensor or timer that turns the lights on at dusk fails or drifts, so lights stay off, or stay on all day.
- Driver or ballast. The part that powers the lamp wears out. One pole going dark is often this.
- Lamp at end of life. Older metal-halide and sodium lamps dim, change color and cycle on and off before they quit.
- Underground wiring. When a whole row goes out, the problem may be in the buried feeder: water in the conduit, damaged wire or a failed splice.
- Breaker or contactor. The control gear inside the building can fail too.
Repair or switch to LED?
If you're replacing parts on older fixtures anyway, an LED retrofit is worth pricing. LEDs use less power, last much longer and come on at full brightness instantly. Fewer lift trips over the years can matter as much as the power savings.
What to expect from us
We diagnose before we replace, bring the lift and the parts, and tell you plainly whether a repair or a retrofit makes more sense for your lot.
Need help with parking lot lights?
Licensed and insured, family owned in Corsicana. Tell us what's going on and we'll get back to you.