Portable Light Towers: A Buyer's Guide to Light Output, Power, Mast Height and Cost

A portable light tower is a mobile light source for night work: a set of LED or metal halide floodlights on a mast that telescopes up to spread light over a wide area, mounted on a towable trailer or a skid with its own power. Contractors, road crews, utilities, mines and event organizers use them anywhere permanent lighting is missing. To choose one, decide how you will power it (diesel, solar or a hybrid of the two), how much light the area needs, how long it has to run each night, and how you will move it between sites. This guide walks through each of those, compares the six solar and hybrid towers we sell, and shows how to estimate how many towers a site needs and what they cost to buy and run.

What is a light tower?

Every light tower has the same four parts, whatever powers it:

• Light heads. Usually four or six floodlights. Newer towers use LED; older fleets still run 1,000 W metal halide lamps, which need a warm-up and dim with age.
• Mast. A telescoping steel or aluminum mast, raised by a hand winch or an electric winch. Height is what lets one tower spread light across a wide area instead of blinding the people next to it.
• Power source. A diesel generator, solar panels and batteries, or both.
• Base. A road-towable trailer with outriggers or leveling jacks, or a skid with forklift pockets.

You will see the same equipment called a light plant, a mobile light tower or a towable light tower. They are the same thing.

The types of portable light tower

The full head-to-head between solar and diesel, with lumens, OSHA light levels, run time, fuel cost and CO2, is in our solar vs diesel light tower comparison. In short: a diesel tower makes more light per trailer, and a solar tower makes the light most work areas need with no fuel bill.

What to compare before you buy

1. Light output in lumens. Compare rated lumens, not lamp watts, because a 100 W LED head and a 1,000 W metal halide lamp are not comparable by watts. Our two-head towers are rated at 30,000 lumens, four-head at 60,000 and six-head at 90,000. Generac's MLTS-4 LED diesel tower is rated at 188,000 lumens from four 47,000-lumen fixtures.
2. Heads you can aim. Heads that rotate and tilt put light on the work and keep it out of drivers' eyes. The Medi towers have rotatable, tiltable heads; the Super, Mega400 and Mega600 rotate a full 360 degrees.
3. Mast height. A taller mast spreads light further with less glare. For reference, the MLTS-4 has a 23 ft mast and our Mini Pro CCTV tower a 21 ft mast rated for winds up to 50 mph. Our solar light tower pages do not list mast height, so ask us for the model you are considering.
4. Run time and recharge. For diesel, it is tank size divided by fuel burn: the MLTS-4 runs 165 hours on a 39.9 gallon tank at 0.24 gallons an hour. For solar, it is battery size against lamp load, plus how much the panels put back each day (see the chart below).
5. Transport. Check the towing weight against your truck and the hitch. The MLTS-4 weighs 1,440 lb in operating trim on a 2 inch ball; the Mini Pro CCTV tower weighs 772 lb and has forklift pockets.
6. Noise and neighbors. Engine noise matters next to homes, hospitals, hotels and events. The MLTS-4 is rated at 67 dB(A) at 23 ft with the lights running. A fully solar tower has no engine.
7. Security. Several towers take an optional CCTV camera, which turns the tower into a site security post overnight.

Our light towers compared

All six use 100 W LED heads, 455 W solar panels, maintenance-free deep-cycle gel batteries, an MPPT charge controller and a telescoping mast with a manual winch. They differ in head count, panel area and battery size.

Specifications and prices from each product page, checked 5 October 2026. The Mini through Super offer an optional CCTV camera. Only the Mega400 and Mega600 carry a generator.

How long does a solar tower run at full output?

Our solar tower pages list battery and lamp sizes but not a rated run time, so here is the arithmetic. Assuming 12 V batteries, each 200 Ah battery stores about 2.4 kWh. Gel batteries are usually discharged to 50 to 80 percent of that. Divide the usable energy by the lamp load:

A full battery only matters if the panels can refill it. That is where the Super earns its extra $100.99 over the Medi400: three panels instead of two on the same four heads and batteries. For short summer nights, either works. For long winter nights at full output, or a site that must stay lit around the clock, choose the Super, dim to fewer heads, or choose a hybrid. The Mega400's generator starts when solar cannot keep up, and the Mega600 adds two more batteries on top.

How many light towers do you need?

Start from the light level the work needs. OSHA's construction standard, 29 CFR 1926.56, sets minimum illumination in foot-candles: 3 for general construction areas, excavation, access ways and storage; 5 for general construction area lighting and tunnels; 10 for shops and equipment rooms; 30 for first aid stations and offices.

A foot-candle is one lumen per square foot. Not every lumen from an aimed floodlight lands on the work, so a common planning assumption is that about half does. That gives a quick estimate:

Lumens needed = area in square feet x foot-candles / 0.5

Planning estimates only. Example: 150 x 200 = 30,000 sq ft; 30,000 x 3 / 0.5 = 180,000 lumens. Real coverage depends on mast height, aiming and surroundings; confirm with a light meter on site.

Several smaller towers spaced around a site also light it more evenly, with fewer hard shadows, than one very bright tower in the middle. That is the practical case for solar on big sites: you spread the light and skip the fuel runs.

What does a portable light tower cost?

Purchase price is only half of it. What a tower costs to run each night decides the total.

• Solar towers: $4,899.99 for the Mini up to $12,699.99 for the Super, as of October 2026. No fuel. The batteries are a wear item over the life of the tower.
• Solar hybrid towers: $14,899.99 and $15,499.99. Fuel only when the backup generator runs.
• LED diesel towers: one dealer lists the Generac MLTS-4 at $10,677. At 0.24 gallons an hour, 12 hours a night is 2.88 gallons, or about $11.52 a night at an assumed $4.00 a gallon diesel. Over a year of nightly use that is roughly $4,200, plus engine service.

The arithmetic is simple: a Medi400 costs about $1,922 more than the MLTS-4 up front and burns no fuel, so at 12 hours a night ($11.52 x 30 = about $346 of fuel a month) the gap closes in five to six months. The solar vs diesel comparison works this through in full. If you only need light for a few nights a year, renting a tower may cost less than owning one; compare the rental days you expect against the purchase price and fuel.

Solar, hybrid or diesel: which fits your job?

• Choose solar for work areas up to about 10,000 square feet per tower, remote sites without fuel deliveries, noise-sensitive locations, and long jobs where fuel and refueling visits add up. The Medi400 and Super are the workhorses; the Mini suits gates, short nights and lighter duty.
• Choose a hybrid when the site must stay lit every night regardless of weather, or in northern winters. The Mega400 and Mega600 put out 90,000 lumens and only burn fuel when solar falls short.
• Choose diesel when one trailer has to light several acres at once, or you need 188,000 lumens or more in one spot. Lumen for lumen, one diesel tower matches roughly three 60,000-lumen solar towers.
• Add a camera tower if theft or vandalism is the bigger overnight risk. The Mini Pro CCTV runs three 4K cameras on solar power.

Light towers are one piece of a night work zone. For the signs, devices and layout around them, see our temporary traffic control guide and work zone safety guide, and for advance warning on the road, our arrow boards.

Frequently asked questions