Fears over street light cut-backs

[DaiNasty]

Originally Posted by Woolly One

Turning off street lights shouldn't result in any problems at all.:

except a field day for vandals, car thieves and burglars !!

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

except a field day for vandals, car thieves and burglars !!

They operate at any time of day..Not just between the hours of midnight and dawn.

[Pauls9]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

They operate at any time of day..Not between the hours of midnight and dawn.

That was when it was as easy to see them at night as in daylight

[Waldo Pepper]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

I wish they'd turn off the one outside of our window!!! Shines directly in on the bed.. Gonna have to deal with it myself soon

Inform your local council and they (well Northants CC did ) will come out and put a shield on one side to prevent it lighting your property up. Worked for me.

Wasn't a brilliant solution, but I admired their commitment. A set of blackout curtains as well sorted the problem.

I still have problems with those cheap B&Q night lights that are only about 10watts that fill my rear bedrooms from adjacent properties. More a problem for my visitors and not me.

[the_neurotic_cat]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11209143

I can see this being a useful way of cutting costs but only if care is taken over where it is done.What do you think?

This would be awesome!

Just imagine living in a place where it goes dark at night time. It would certainly improve our quality of life. The original justification for having so much light at night was crime prevention but security has improved a lot over the years. Apart from those damn flood lights that people install above their front door so when you walk past their house you get blasted with 900 quadrillion watts of scorching light. Idiots.

Who cares what MP's think. They do all they can to promote fear and distrust amongst we who have to pay their way. MP's should keep their mouths shut unless they have something useful to say. Idiots.

Who cares what Local Authorities think. They want as many lights as possible so they need more maintenance and 'investment' so that can justify taking as much of your cash as they can get away with. Also Idiots.

Darkness at night time. Who would have thought.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by the_neurotic_cat

This would be awesome!

Just imagine living in a place where it goes dark at night time. It would certainly improve our quality of life.

It would be nice to actually see some stars. The horrid yellow glow here in town means we only see the odd ones. Where my mother lives in Cornwall the night sky is ablaze with stars and galaxies. The nearest street light being over 200yds away on the other side of a house and it is the only lit road for miles.

Who cares what MP's think. They do all they can to promote fear and distrust amongst we who have to pay their way. MP's should keep their mouths shut unless they have something useful to say. Idiots.

The silence from Westminster would be deafening.

[Pauls9]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

It would be nice to actually see some stars. The horrid yellow glow here in town means we only see the odd ones. Where my mother lives in Cornwall the night sky is ablaze with stars and galaxies. The nearest street light being over 200yds away on the other side of a house and it is the only lit road for miles.

Agreed. Comparing the sky where we often holiday in the far reaches of Scotland with Surrey - in between every star we see at home there are a thousand or more visible. An amazing sight.

[tweetiepooh]

There was an article some years back in New Scientist about "low pressure street lights" that used much less juice. You could install more of these to provide better lighting rather than simply more. This reduces glare upwards and make things safer for driving.
I don't remember the figures but the power reductions was such that you could double the number of lights and still make massive savings off the leccy bill.

One the crime concerns it was noted that the villans likes shadow so by having more less bright lights you reduced shadow you also (in theory) could make things safer.

[Maggy J]

Yesterday they came around our street and fitted low energy bulbs in our street lights..

The only difference I noted last night was that the light they gave out was blue rather than yellow.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

...the light they gave out was blue rather than yellow.

I used to live near a road that had a lot of red lights. Very busy at night, too.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

There was an article some years back in New Scientist about "low pressure street lights" that used much less juice. You could install more of these to provide better lighting rather than simply more. This reduces glare upwards and make things safer for driving.
I don't remember the figures but the power reductions was such that you could double the number of lights and still make massive savings off the leccy bill.

One the crime concerns it was noted that the villans likes shadow so by having more less bright lights you reduced shadow you also (in theory) could make things safer.

AFAIK the most efficient gas dischange lamp is the Low pressure sodium lamp

Recent LED advances are going to replace these in the next few years with the advantages that LEDs come on instantly, give good colour rendition and can be dimmed.

Example

[Begize]

There's one small problem with this idea. How do you actually switch off all the street lamps at once at a set time?

AFAIK, most street lamps in the UK work on photocells to turn and off when the light falls below a certain level. Most lamps are also wired directly into the mains on what are called "unmetered supplies". In other words, they're not all fed down a special cable with a switch and meter at the Town Hall end, but just into the normal supplies which run to our houses.

The Buckingham CC trial was switching off lights in areas completely, not for part of the night.

As the BBC News story alludes, it would require massive investment in new technology and probably someone to visit every street light in the UK to fit it.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Begize

There's one small problem with this idea. How do you actually switch off all the street lamps at once at a set time?

AFAIK, most street lamps in the UK work on photocells to turn and off when the light falls below a certain level. Most lamps are also wired directly into the mains on what are called "unmetered supplies". In other words, they're not all fed down a special cable with a switch and meter at the Town Hall end, but just into the normal supplies which run to our houses.

The Buckingham CC trial was switching off lights in areas completely, not for part of the night.

As the BBC News story alludes, it would require massive investment in new technology and probably someone to visit every street light in the UK to fit it.

It probably would involved a massive investment although the costs could be reduced by using remote control switches that are connected to the control system via a mobile phone network.

Costs could be further reduced by fitting the switches to lights during routine maintenance.

[TheNorm]

LED lights regulated by a PIR so that they come on when actually needed. Fitted during routine maintenance.

Right, we've sorted that one. Next!

[Pauls9]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Yesterday they came around our street and fitted low energy bulbs in our street lights..

The only difference I noted last night was that the light they gave out was blue rather than yellow.

We used to have bluish street lights. It was great to see bats dashing past collecting flying insects that were attracted to them. Then they changed the lights to sodium. Never saw bats in the street since (only in the back garden). Be great if they returned!