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Hounslow Council's 'too bright' street lights...

laser_jock99

By laser_jock99
in The Astro Lounge

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ronin

ronin

Posted
Posted

Oh my god, these lights are incredibly offensive...I would like to meet those geniuses who plan such projects...

You'll meet him soon. He's doing yours next week. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

The old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. :grin: :grin:

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

Posted
Posted

You'll meet him soon. He's doing yours next week. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

The old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. :grin: :grin:

Oh, please..no no no...!! I take back my word, I'd rather not meet them.

The ones I have around are OK actually...but I have to say the Hounslow ones should be considered a criminal act...they're like damn stadium flood lights...!!

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DaveS

DaveS

Posted
Posted

He said "We don't have a duty to consult the residents" Neither do the residents have any duty to vote him back into office. He should remember this before making such remarks.

Edit. Hounslow has dropped off my long-list of possible moves. But makes me concerned that Hillingdon may be as stupid.

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philhas

philhas

Posted
Posted

Completely agree with you Dave, the arrogance of these local officials never fails to amaze me. We have LED lights up here, they are replacement bulbs inside a diffuser and on the whole work well except that when they changed the bulb in the one outside our house they cleaned off the blacking which I had arranged with the council to stop the light coming in my bedroom window! Although the sky glow is less the sideways light seems to penetrate out at a higher angle, this really showed up in the recent week of fog we had.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

Posted
Posted

Have these too and being that bit higher the one out front means can read in the bedroom!

I had to make a black out blind for our room as the one across the road shines in and made sleeping deeply illusive. I will be asking for that one to have a shield so at least I can observe in the back garden better.

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DaveS

DaveS

Posted
Posted

I'm not against LEDs per se, despite sounding grumpy above, but they have to be used intelligently. Unfortunately intelligence is sadly lacking in this area, the monkey fear of the dark comes charging through disrupting coherent thought in the planners.

Thinking about the article / clip the lamp-heads look to be curved, negating the benefits of LEDs potential for full cut-off.

I'm now dreading the roll-out of LEDs,as I'll probably be moving to a bungalow, so lamp-standards will  be above my roof line. At least where I am now the lamp-standards are below the roof line. There are no street-lamps visible from my back garden.

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emadmoussa

emadmoussa

Posted
Posted

I'm not against LEDs per se, despite sounding grumpy above, but they have to be used intelligently. Unfortunately intelligence is sadly lacking in this area, the monkey fear of the dark comes charging through disrupting coherent thought in the planners.

Thinking about the article / clip the lamp-heads look to be curved, negating the benefits of LEDs potential for full cut-off.

I'm now dreading the roll-out of LEDs,as I'll probably be moving to a bungalow, so lamp-standards will  be above my roof line. At least where I am now the lamp-standards are below the roof line. There are no street-lamps visible from my back garden.

If the lamp is parallel to or slightly higher than your roof line, then you shouldn't worry...these lights don't seem to spread light vertically ...more like a pyramid shape.

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sharkmelley

sharkmelley

Posted
Posted

The council spokesperson said they "consume less electricity".  Consume less electricty than what?  They appear to be the 36 LED version of the WRTL Stela lamp which consumes 44W (see datasheet here:  http://www.wrtl.co.uk/Content/FileManager/datasheets/stela.pdf).  The efficiency is 114 lumens/W according to the same datasheet.  Our old friend, the  low pressure sodium lamp gives 100-200 lumens/W.  So low pressure sodium gives out more light for a given power, potentially a lot more light.  It is not beyond the wit of man to build low pressure sodium light fittings giving well directed light with no spill upwards or sideways.

In addition, however well directed the light is, there will always be light scattered upwards by roads, pavements, lakes and rivers.  Give me well designed low pressure sodium lamps every time - at least I have half a chance of filtering it out when observing or imaging!

Mark

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Alien 13

Alien 13

Posted
Posted

These lights do improve the average level of LP provided you can observe above the fallout zone if like me you live on a hill then at least one of them will be in direct line of sight.

I can see a big boom in treetop or raised observing platforms lol.

Alan

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
Posted

That particular design of light appears completely inappropriate for a residential street.  I wonder if they gave no consideration to appropriate designs for different locations?  If enough people object I can see it becoming a real problem for the council.

James

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DaveS

DaveS

Posted
Posted

I'm hoping a LOT of people object, even to a class-action suite for light trespass. If it was expensive enough for the council it might make them, and others actually *think* about what they are doing.

And yes, LP sodium give the most illumination per Watt, both for their innate efficiency and outputting close to the visual peak. It is not beyond the wit of man (Or woman) to design a housing for them with full cut-off.

Edit:

And yes, totally inappropriate for a residential street. Perhaps they bought a job lot suitable for the main roads and used them for residential as well. Stupid penny-pinching bean-counters :mad:

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
Posted

Lumens per watt may not be the right way to compare the effectiveness of roadside lighting.  This chap rather overstates his case I think (and probably for obvious reasons -- at least he's up-front about it), but reasonably fairly demonstrates that other factors should perhaps be considered:

http://www.al-e.com/led-vs-sodium-lamps

James

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DaveS

DaveS

Posted
Posted

Deep red streetlights would be ideal, for the same reasons we use deep red LEDs at the 'scope. The general populace might object though, if it made our streets look like hell  :evil:

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sharkmelley

sharkmelley

Posted
Posted

Lumens per watt may not be the right way to compare the effectiveness of roadside lighting.

Interesting.  So the eye sensitivity must also be taken into account when comparing lighting efficiency.  It also means that street lighting will inevitably become more broadband.  Will that end up being a good or bad thing for astronomy?  I guess only time will tell.

Mark

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JamesF

JamesF

Posted
Posted

I think the argument that it's better to have lower-power lighting that allows the human eye to work more efficiently would be a hard one to challenge.  I think there's an additional requirement incumbent on anyone installing such lighting though, in that it should illuminate what needs to be illuminated, and not illuminate what doesn't need to be or shouldn't be.

James

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