What is a lighting tower?
From construction sites and roadworks to large events like festivals or weddings, good lighting and well-illuminated spaces are critical. A lighting tower is a piece of equipment consisting of a mast and lamp that can be mounted onto different applications. Portable and mobile, lighting towers are easy to set up and can be erected quickly making them ideal lighting solutions in a wide variety of places.
Here at Ace Plant, we offer a range of lighting towers for hire and sale, suited to various requirements. With the wide variety of environments in which lighting towers can be used, we are here to help explain the various ways this piece of high-quality equipment can make a practical addition to your setting.
7 reasons to hire a lighting tower
Not sure whether you need to hire a lighting tower this winter? Take a look at the top reasons to hire a lighting tower below:
1. Highway maintenance benefits
Hire a lighting tower for enhanced visibility, improved safety and extended working hours in your highway maintenance operations this winter. Winter conditions reduce visibility due to snow, ice and reduced daylight hours, and lighting tows will ensure that your maintenance crews can clearly see the road, equipment and any potential hazards that would otherwise not be visible. Well-lit work areas also crucially help protect your crews from accidents, particularly when working with vehicles and heavy machinery.
2. Advantages for construction sites
Lighting tower hire is essential for your construction site over the winter period. It ensures improved visibility during shorter daylight hours and harsh weather conditions, providing consistent, bright illumination. A well-lit construction site will also reduce the risk of accidents like trips, falls and collisions. Many construction tasks require precision too, so proper lighting will be crucial to maximising the precision and quality of output when using diggers and dumpers, for example.
3. Better lighting for outdoor events
If you’re an events organiser, hiring a lighting tower this winter is essential. They’ll ensure visibility on those longer nights, making sure that pathways, seating areas and activity zones are well-lit. Proper lighting will also enhance the ambience of your event, creating a warmer and more inviting atmosphere in the cold weather. For events that involve photographers and videographers, good lighting will help ensure high-quality photos and videos. Hiring a lighting tower for your event will also help your staff monitor crowds more effectively, ensuring safety and security.
4. Powerful coverage for large areas
Hire a lighting tower this winter for powerful coverage of your site. The height of a lighting tower and the elevated design distributes light over large areas, reducing shadows and ensuring even illumination. The adjustable positioning of our lighting towers and the ability to swivel or tilt helps direct illumination to exactly where its needed. Wide beam spreads also help cover large areas without the need for lots of lighting towers.
5. Simple transportation
Lighting towers are designed for easy transportation, and mobility features like wheels and skid-mounted bases allow for easy movement across different terrains. Some lighting towers have designated slots for forklifts, making it quick an easy to load and unload onto your trucks or trailers.
6. Overall versatility
Hiring a lighting tower is ideal for a wide range of applications, including construction sites, outdoor events and sporting events. The fact that lighting towers can be raised, lowered and angled allows or customised lighting solutions based on your requirements. They’re also designed to withstand harsh weather conditions and so can be used in diverse environments too, from urban settings to remote locations.
7. Enhanced safety and security
It’s a well-known fact that well-lit areas discourage criminal activity. Lighting tower hire will help keep your premises more secure, acting as a deterrent and making it easier to see and identify suspicious behaviour on your premises.
Adequate lighting provided by lighting towers also help prevent accidents, illuminating hazards and obstacles in complex or busy environments. Good lighting also helps workers and attendees at events stay aware of their surroundings, reducing the likelihood of slips, trips or falls.
Hire the right lighting tower for your site
We have a range of options available if you’re looking to hire a lighting tower this winter. The things to consider when choosing your lighting tower are the following:
- Light throw
- Efficiency
- Durability
- Transport and mobility
Light throw
Consider the size of the site you need to light. Is it a relatively small courtyard? Or is it a much larger, industrial construction site? It’s important to pick a lighting tower which adequately provides the correct lighting you need for your applications, to ensure productivity remains good when the clocks go back, but most importantly, to ensure you are delivering safe working conditions.
We offer LED lighting towers for hire at Ace Plant. Our LED lighting towers deliver a 90m light throw,
Efficiency
Efficiency is another factor you’ll probably be thinking about when choosing any plant or site equipment, not least for lighting towers. This includes cost and time efficiency.
Firstly, how much fuel does a lighting tower consume? This of course depends on the model and the type of bulbs used – metal halide bulbs tend to consume more fuel per hour, with approximately 1.53 litres per hour used to power the lamps, in contrast to just over half a litre for LED alternatives. LEDs also waste very little energy compared to other options in the form of infrared radiation.
Secondly, how time efficient are different types of lighting towers? Something to consider is warm up and cool down times. This isn’t an issue with LED towers, which reach full luminosity when turned on. However, metal halide models require around 15-20 minutes to reach their normal operating temperature, which means that they can often be less time efficient than their LED counterparts. For example, consider a half an hour period of downtime – do you turn the lighting tower off to save on fuel costs, or do you keep it running to avoid repeating the warm up process?
Our lighting towers at Ace Plant have dawn/dusk sensors, meaning that time efficiency is improved automatically, compared to other models on the market.
Durability
Durability is key to saving costs down the line and keeping productivity at a consistently high level. A lighting tower needs to be weather resistant, especially as the autumn and winter weather approaches. Corrosion resistance is important, particularly with harsher materials that might be used on construction sites. Furthermore, wind resistance is another thing to look for- fortunately, all of our lighting towers at Ace Plant are suitable for usage in up to a maximum of 100km/h wind speeds.
Moreover, servicing is another key component to maintaining the durability of your equipment if you buy as opposed to hire. No matter how durable your lighting tower is, it will always benefit from regular servicing to ensure everything is in working order and your equipment lasts.
Transportability and mobility
Finally, you should consider how important transportability is regarding your lighting tower. Will you need to regularly move equipment to different site locations? How easy is it to dismantle? The main part of the lighting tower which can cause issues with transportability is the mast. A 9M mast ought to be easy to dismantle, and compactable enough to facilitate simple transportation. Hydraulic masts are an effective solution to this- they facilitate smooth elevation and retraction, meaning your lighting tower can be dismantled safely and with ease.
On a similar note, additional features, such as road lighting, hook eye lift points, and fork pockets make transportation safer and easier.
Here at Ace Plant, we have nearly 50 years of quality experience in plant hire and sales. To find out more about the lighting tower hire options we offer and how we can help you with your site’s requirements, give us a call today on 01908 562191 or email us at hire@aceplant.co.uk. Alternatively, fill out one of our enquiry forms and an expert from our team will get back to you shortly.