Got a problem with your parking lot lights? Don’t ignore it. That’s a problem you need to fix ASAP.

Parking lot lighting serves many of the same functions as landscape lighting. Most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about parking lot lights, but they are vital to your business.

Treat parking lot light problems as emergencies

Poor parking lot lighting can cause customers to trip or slip and fall, leading to potential lawsuits against your business.

Dark parking lots also can invite criminals. If civil courts believe you’ve failed to do your duty to offer a reasonable level of protection to your customers, you may be sued just because someone decided to mug one of your customers one night. Your dark parking lot also exposes you to direct loss, because vandals and thieves can also target your property.

Of course, a poorly maintained parking lot is bad for business, simply because it makes your business appear sloppy and under-equipped.  For reasons both commonsense and emotional, customers may take their business elsewhere.

What goes wrong with parking lot lights?

Often all you need is a bulb replacement. But parking lot lights aren’t like bedroom lamps. You can’t just pick up a few light bulbs at the hardware store and be on your way. Parking lot lights often are too high to reach without the help of a lift, and even the oldest parking lot light requires a licensed electrician to troubleshoot.

Parking lot lights are run either with high-intensity discharge bulbs (HID) or with LED lighting. HIDs can be dangerous to handle because they’re filled with gasses, like argon and mercury. Also, they can’t just be screwed in: They must be fitted to ballasts in the parking lot lamp (a special piece of electrical equipment that allows the lamp to light while regulating the flow of current).

Many commercial property owners retrofit their parking lots to use LED lights, because LEDs  last longer, create significant energy savings, and produce better light. That is a big job, though.

Bulbs aren’t always the problem. If you have LED lighting already, the drivers can fail. Ballasts can break and capacitors can overload. Even bad weather can create problems. Of course, any light can break down if it wasn’t installed correctly in the first place.

24/7 emergency electricians for your business’s parking lot

If you’ve got an outage, you don’t have to wait. You can get your lighting fixed soon after noticing the problem. In many cases we can have someone out to your business just a few hours after you call.

Call (619) 908-1286 today to get an experienced Premo Electric commercial electrician out to your business.