Clevedon Town have announced final adjustments to their new replacement floodlights at the Everyone Active Stadium have been completed after passing an independent assessment.
Although the new lights were first used in the Seasiders 2-1 win against Shepton Mallet in September 2020, it was subsequently found adjustment to the deflectors on the lamps were needed before they could be officially approved.
Clevedon's history with floodlights has seen them demoted from the Southern League due to problems lasting until the replacements arrived.
However, the circumstances were completely different with the club choosing to be one of the early non-league pioneers to install new state of the art LED technology lights and dispense with the old metal halide lights.
The club engaged Wiseman Lighting, under the direction of Harry Riste, with contractors Stuart Days and Peter Jankovic, to install the lights.
Using drone technology, the company carried out a full survey of the old lighting system and were able to fit the new lights to the existing lattice towers.
The new LEDs offer a higher quality of light whilst reducing the power from approximately 64 kW/hour to 22.76 kW/hour, effectively a saving of over 60 per cent and come with a 10-year parts and labour warranty and a performance guarantee which means the club will avoid any of the problems they encountered with their old Teignmouth Road lights.
The money for the lights came from a Football Stadia Improvement Fund grant which was secured by Chairman Brian Rose, together with donations from sponsors, the Butcombe Farm Chilli Farm and the fundraising efforts of the Friends of Clevedon Town.
"Although it took a bit longer than we hoped to finalise everything it was important to get it right, especially after all legal problems the club encountered with the old Teignmouth Road lights which were not installed correctly. Add to that the uncertainty since 2015 in not knowing how many bulbs would work in the old Hand Stadium lights each time we switched them on," said Rose.
"We have worked closely with Wiseman Lighting and Harry Riste has done a great job in sorting everything out. We look forward to developing a long-term relationship with Wiseman, starting with the company providing advertising boards for the ground."
The fully approved lights will be in use on Wednesday, 7:45pm against Bath City in the first round of the Somerset Premier Cup.
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