Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterM
Hi Gary,
The poles are up and lights probably anyday now.
Unfortunately even with all this knowledge about LP the roads are being lit all over the place by LEDs. "Save $' and brighter seem to be the in thing - a nice warm and fuzzy we are green and planetwise I suppose.
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LEDs are in itself not bad at all. But councils and companies think : they consume less energy, so for the same amount of energy we get more light, so that is the actual choice made. And we have finally Daylight, so preferably the even more scattering 5000K LEDs instead of the orange or yellow HPS sodium lamps. Wow !
Exactly, IMO that is Abuse of LEDs to get MORE LP. Only the luminaries are better designed: the HPS have a downward protruding light bulb which chines more upward than the flat underside of the LED luminaries.
And, yet, the more lumens and higher color temperature yields more LP and does not save the councils any money, only the salesmen of the LED lamps, like this NYC based LOT-EK company.
Even in our country, well working low pressure sodium (with monochromatic yellow light) are being replaced by 5000K LEDs which do not have a better efficacy at all. There are even AlInGaP LEDs yielding almost the same narrowbanded yellow, so why are these not used for streetlights ?
But, OTOH I also see 3000K LEDs installed on streetlamps, which is much better.
The best option is 'smart lighting' which means, sensor driven or at least dimming them after midnight which is impossible with sodium or metal halide lamps. And that is not being used at all.