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Portable lighting options - both standard light towers and balloon lights - are steady, quiet sentinels on jobsites. When changes occur to these machines, it's not splashy or drastic, but quiet and deliberate.

"The light tower market has been in gradual but constant change for more than 30 years," says John Gibbons, manager of technical sales and market development at Terex. "From the original air-cooled machines sitting on an open base, to the sturdy enclosed liquid-cooled efficient machines we have today, much has changed, but much as stayed the same."

So, what's new?

Auto start options
Several manufacturers, including Ingersoll Rand, Allmand Bros. and Magnum Products, offer an auto start/stop option on their light towers.

On Ingersoll Rand LightSource units, the Auto Start • Stop feature has a built-in photocell that allows the unit to turn on automatically at dusk and either run for a specific amount of time (up to 10 hours) or until dawn.

With the flip of a switch on the control panel, the light tower can be changed from manual to auto mode. When it's placed in auto mode, the operator need only set the dial to the desired run time or turn the timer to the "timer off" position for the system to automatically power off at dawn.