[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.