Light Pollution N. Sydney

[solissydney]

SOLIS is presently in communication with N. Sydney Council regarding the obtrusive lights seen center left in the image.
Last year, prior to council elections, N. Sydney Council agreed to implement light pollution controls. The new Mayor, Jilly Copper, then elected was however against any such a policy.
So SOLIS is waiting to see what response will be given to our request for better lighting.

[pluto]

That is disgraceful, especially for somewhere that is completely empty after the sun sets.

[Wavytone]

Disgraceful, I agree.

Having lived in Waverton, I am fairly sure those lights are on a high ridge north of North Sydney proper, probably either/both:

a) the streetlights along the highpoint of Miller and Falcon St;
b) the two North Sydney Ovals at the high point of Ridge St/Falcon St so I guess there may have been something going on.

Lighting is frequently overdone if left to private contractors responding to specifications with requirements for illumination "not less than XXX". When 'lowest cost' tendering prevails (as it does in the RTA and TfNSW) the result is cheap and nasty fixtures with no cutoffs (shades) that waste most of the output to the sky.

The bulbs clearly have ineffective shades and are wasting 50% of their output to the sky. Adding a shade which directs light down will double the illumination on the ground, if they make sure it has a suitable cutoff angle, so they could easily halve the electricity bill by fitting suitable shades and removing half the bulbs - and still achieve the same level of illumination on the ground.

In any case find out who is responsible for lighting in the council and to put it to them that there is an opportunity to save a tidy sum by cutting their electricity bill, through the usual measures:

a) controls to turn the damn things off when no-one is around,
b) adding cutoffs that direct the light down,
c) reducing the illumination to that elsewhere, by removing about 3/4 of the bulbs in this case, noting that b) will also increase the illumination on the ground.