Sodium or white LED street lights

[moriniboy]

I have been considering writing to my local Council to get a nearby sodium (orange) light changed to one of the white LED versions which I understand are more shilded and directional.

The only problem is they are white and a quick glimpse could affect my dark adaption.

As the sodium version is orange would it be better to not say anything?

Luckily there is only one lamp visible from my back garden.

[chiltonstar]

If your sodium lamps are "high pressure" (most are) or mercury-sodium, they emit nearly continuum radiation anyway, and are IMHO astronomically ghastly. At least the white LED ones are more directional and can be dimmed - an advantage compared with discharge type lamps!

Chris

[acey]

Low-pressure sodium can be filtered, high-pressure sodium can't. White LED lamps are brighter and create more glare from reflective surfaces. The posts are usually taller so their light spreads further. All streetlights will damage your dark adaptation and contribute to skyglow, so you need to screen yourself from them as much as possible.

[lukebl]

Noooooo! Be very careful what you wish for.

I've actually written to my council for confirmation that they WON'T be replacing the sodium lamps with LED ones. Fortunately, they don't have enough money at the moment. As Acey says, you can filter out the sodium glare, but not the dreadful pan-spectrum LED lights. Also they're generally much brighter, and the light they shine downwards gets reflected back up and no amount of shielding will stop that.

[starman1969]

In Blackpool, where I live, there has been a phased update of all the street lighting in the town. I now have two white lights which shine into my garden. Although they are brighter, I think the improved shielding helps against stray light.

Although not perfect, I prefer them to the previous nasty ageing sodium efforts. That orange glow seemed to go round every corner in my garden.

[Cath]

A white LED spectral output ..

http://upload.wikime...8/White_LED.png

And apparently (no idea which type of white LED they use for street lamps) ...

"There is a concern that blue LEDs and cool-white LEDs are now capable of exceeding safe limits of the so-called blue-light hazard as defined in eye safety specifications such as ANSI/IESNA RP-27.1–05: Recommended Practice for Photobiological Safety for Lamp and Lamp Systems.[109][110]"

from .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode

[Carbon Brush]

Can a shield be fitted to the lamp to prevent it shining into your garden? That is without preventing it from doing it's job lighting the street.

If so, that would be a low cost and easy fix for the council.

It would also be yet another case of someone saying 'I don't want street lights shining into my property'.

In my view, the more people who say this, for whatever reason, the better for us.

Until recently thare has been the thought in councils that more light is better and even more light everywhere is far better.

A gradual change in mindset may eventually yield results.