UK's first LED street lights

savemoney

wow what a difference compared with the orange glow (sodium)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2016849/Council-unveils-UK-s-LED-street-lights.html


The lights are expected to save taxpayers more than £4,500-each-year - as well as 25 tonnes of carbon emissions.

The bright white LEDs provide clearer and better illumination than traditional street lights, improving conditions for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians.


Each lamp contains more than 80 tiny bulbs, which have a life span of 60,000 hours or around 16 years when lit for 10 hours each day - five times that of a traditional street lamp.


LED


old lights sodium

MintMark

Good idea... I suppose the main saving is from replacing bulbs with LEDs. I was hoping to read that the lights were designed to minimise the amount of light shining up into the sky, but it doesn't say that.

The light pollution could be no better and may be even worse.

savemoney

The lights can be dimmed from that picture they are very bright maybe a little too bright

zeupater

Hi

It's at the back of my mind that the majority of streetlights are connected to unmetered supplies and the local authorities simply pay a fixed sum per light per year, whether they are working or not ..... I wonder how many lights will be changed with the terms and cost of connection simply being overlooked, effectively resulting in the same energy usage cost on the council tax, an increase in the council tax to cover the capital investment and, of course, more profit for the energy suppliers ....

Anyway, looking at the two photographs it seems that the LED version was taken with a twilight sky providing more natural background light, whereas the other is in complete darkness .... I wonder wherether this is deliberate ? ....

Z

WestonDave

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

It's at the back of my mind that the majority of streetlights are connected to unmetered supplies and the local authorities simply pay a fixed sum per light per year, whether they are working or not ..... I wonder how many lights will be changed with the the terms and cost of connection simply being overlooked, effectively resulting in the same energy usage cost on the council tax, an increase in the council tax to cover the capital investment and, of course, more profit for the energy suppliers ....

Anyway, looking at the two photographs it seems that the LED version was taken with a twilight sky providing more natural background light, whereas the other is in complete darkness .... I wonder wherether this is deliberate ? ....

Z

Interesting point re unmetered supplies - as this is my council that have done this, I may well ask!

Re the brightness, this is a nasty roundabout which sees a lot of accidents so it may be being left brighter than normal to try and cut that back.

liam8282

£4,500 saving per year, will only take about 100 years for the lights to pay for themselves, but by that time they might need replacing.

Around my area the old "orange" street lights were all replaced with new "white" street lights, they are not LED's, but they are much better. I am not so sure now, they might actually be LED's, but if that article is correct then they can't be? I know the street lights are philips, have white light and are small??

They are also designed to direct light down towards pavement and roads as was mentioned earlier.

http://www.lightsoninleeds.co.uk/Public/Default.aspx

http://www.lightsoninleeds.co.uk/Public/Faq.aspx

jojonic

Love the LED lights, what a great investment... need replacing less often, use less energy... I dont think they can be dimmed without a good bit of kit being added? could be wrong, but they can certainly work on switching off every 2nd light in the early hours.

I was hoping to read that the lights were designed to minimise the amount of light shining up into the sky, but it doesn't say that.

LEDs are much more directional than incandescent bulbs, so Im not saying light pollution will be significantly reduced, but the light will definitely be more concentrated on the ground than all around the bulb.

Fred_Bear_2

liam8282 wrote: »

£4,500 saving per year, will only take about 100 years for the lights to pay for themselves,

The article says 8 years to pay for themselves.

amibovvered

There have been some LED lamps installed on a very rural road near where I live - first I've seen (Lancashire). I haven't had occasion to drive along the road but I do walk regularly along it with my dog, and for pedestrians the lights are awful - they blind you and make it very difficult to see if any traffic is coming towards you which is particularly dangerous as this road has no pavements. Not impressed so far!:(

whitelabel

Birmingham has been fitting these in my area for a while now (not sure why they just couldnt change the bulb fittings rather than the whole shehbang though), so not sure how theyre the "first", and it seem other areas have these too...

they are higher though and in some cases at tree level which will be silly as trees will need cutting more often around them now.

free_juice?

Half a dozen were installed along a foot path about 120 feet away from me recently and the poles are a little over 30 feet high so I was concerned I was going to suffer light pollution, but they are no problem.

I inspected the accounts of my local council last week and noticed that every multi-story car park gets an individual electricity bill and none are under £1,000 a month. I think that equates to 120 100 watt lamps on constantly. I've not been to see what lighting they actually have, never used the car parks myself.