There are several important problems need to be taken into consideration in the installation of LED airport lighting applications: 1) the installation of LED airfield lamps is more difficult than that of incandescent lamps; 2) the compatibility problem. The LED airport lighting system may not be compatible with the old electricity infrastructure system, which is typically designed for incandescent lights. Verification is necessary before the purchasing and installation;
According to comprehensive survey results, major reasons for LED airport lighting applications are reduce maintenance costs, decline power consumption, improve the visibility of the airport lighting system. Interestingly, no one mentioned any legislative reasons. Despite the fact that the national energy legislation, such as the 2007 EISA (Energy Independence and Security Act), improved the luminous efficiency requirements for general lamps. Many existing incandescent lighting products may not meet this requirement in the next ten years. However, it seems that EISA impacted little influences on airport lighting projects. One possible reason may be that this act does not include some special light sources with anti-vibration and anti-corruption capacities.
Expectations of maintenance reduction were often mentioned in the literature. Copenhagen Airport indicated that they have recently installed hundreds of LED obstruction lights, with an estimated lifetime of 100,000 hours, far more than that of incandescent lamps (2,000 hours). In order to win the tender, some manufacturers even provided a 5-year warranty. According to the report of Airports Council International (ACI) in 2007, compared with incandescent slides, their LED slides were expected to reduce maintenance costs significantly. LED stop lamps used in the Newcastle International Airport (UK) were expected to extend the maintenance cycle of their lighting system, from one month to six years. The Burlington (Vermont) International Airport (Edelstein 2009), (Little Rock, Arkansas) the Neuberger Airport (States News Service 2009a), (Trenton) the New Jersey Airport (TendersInfo 2010a), the San Bernardino (California) International Airport (TendersInfo 2010b), the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (News and the Observer, 2010), the Tulsa (Oklahoma) International Airport (Stewart 2011a), all these airports had similar reports about their LED airport lighting applications.
Reducing energy consumption is another important reason to replace incandescent lights with LED lamps in the airport lighting system. U.S. General Accounting Office (USGAO 2010) listed led tunnel light as one the four common energy-saving equipments used in airports. At Neuberger airport, reducing energy consuming is the most important reason for them to install LED airport lamps (States NewsService 2009a, Targeted News Service 2010). It is estimated that the power consumption of led tunnel light is only 25%-33% of incandescent lamps.