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Andrew Gabriel

In article ,
writes:
On 03/12/2016 19:39, Nightjar wrote:
On 03-Dec-16 11:10 AM, Scott wrote:
As I mentioned elsewhere, I am experimenting with LED lighting.

I was having a curry with a former colleague last night, who mentioned
his father hates LED lighting for the following reasons:
...
3. Because of the frequency (colour temperature?) the light does not
travel as far so streetlamps need to be placed closer together but.
Councils are not doing this for cost reasons, leaving blackspots in
illumination.

Probably depends upon the Council. My local County Council has recently
carried out a huge programme of updating the street lights to LEDs. All
but a few minor residential streets, where lights were mounted upon
existing overhead power poles, got new light columns at new spacings.

That's happened here in 'ampshire (SO21). It's good that the lights seem
to have less upwards scatter and are more efficient but the overall
result in our village is that it's very difficult to see parked cars and
walkers on the road that runs through the centre. I'm not sure these new
lights are entirely fit for purpose.

There are substantial government grants available for councils and
commercial users to replace lighting with LEDs, as part of an effort
to reduce electricity consuption, and avoid rolling blackouts. Many
councils have taken this up, as a way to get ageing lighting columns
replaced, which they otherwise could not afford to do. Actually, I've
seen many relatively recent HID installations being pulled out and
replaced again with LEDs.

Mind you - replacement of the large LPS lamps with LEDs is probably
a bogus electricity saving, as the LPS has a higher Lumens/Watt than
LED streetlamps currently do. Replacement of LPS has been pushed by
the lighting industry (because they make no money from them), and the
government fell for it.

North Hampshire has just gone through a program of replacing all
residential streetlamps with fluorescents, including remote
switching and dimming, but I think that predates the recent
government grants.

--
Andrew Gabriel
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