Why are they replacing orange street lights with white?
Discussion
cuprabob said:
Around these parts the are replacing them with white LEDs which consume less power and require less maintenance and thus more cost effective.
Not very nice though are they, cold harsh white light not a soft orange warming glow...plus i think its easier to drive at night with orange street lights, white ones mask a little other vehicles headlights imo.Assumed it was a cost exercise/efficiency, but couldn't they have orange covers on the light fixings
Lower energy consumption, longer lifespan, more accurate colour rendering (easier to see differences in colour under white light which makes it easier to see what things are). Set against, worse light pollution (because we perceive the light as brighter), more likely to disturb people's sleep and body clocks.
If you put a coloured filter on them you'd have to run them brighter.
If you put a coloured filter on them you'd have to run them brighter.
I find in certain situations it makes it harder to differentiate between streetlights and car headlights, there's a particular roundabout near me on the crest of a hill so the streetlights on the entrance/exit roads appear to be more or less down at ground level, quite disorientating trying to distinguish between headlights and streetlights particularly in wet weather.
Horrid things. I sometimes walk down the road to the post box when it's dark. The white streetlights are very bright but the light is very concentrated in a specific area and it's very dark walking in the shadows between the pools of light. Can't the plastic cover over the bulbs be of a colour and design that softens the light and diffuses it over a wide area?
There is some benefit to be had in LED lights along main roads and motorways as it's proven to improve peripheral vision but these tend to operate at a much higher power than your normal neighbourhood light where they're plainly awful.
They're also damaging to wildlife - studies have shown hedgerows near to LED lamps are becoming devoid of animal life due to the type of light projected. The level of damage to the local ecology is cancelling out any gain on wider eco-benefits that LED might afford.
They're also damaging to wildlife - studies have shown hedgerows near to LED lamps are becoming devoid of animal life due to the type of light projected. The level of damage to the local ecology is cancelling out any gain on wider eco-benefits that LED might afford.
mac96 said:
No doubt cost saving is main driver but they also reduce light pollution.
To me they seem to be less effective atlighting the streets though.
Except it doesn’t. Astronomers could easily filter out the old orange lamps because they emitted only one wavelength of light (ok, technically 2, but… 1nm apart - 489nm, the emission line of sodium). To me they seem to be less effective atlighting the streets though.
The new broad spectrum white LEDs can’t be filtered out in the same way. Making visual/optical astronomy much harder.
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