Light pollution in the USA

What is Light Pollution

Light pollution is the result of poorly designed, improperly installed, and overly bright outdoor lighting. Some of the components of light pollution are listed below.

Components of Light Pollution

1) Urban Sky Glow

This is what you see when you look at a city from a distance, a dome of light covering a large area of the sky and blocking your view of the stars. Proof that you don’t have to live in the city to be negatively effected by it wasteful outdoor lighting practices.

2) Light Trespass

The light from a neighbor, business, roadway, billboard etc. shining onto your property without your consent. This is similar to someone playing their stereo loudly late at night keeping you awake, but instead of noise it’s light keeping you awake and invading your privacy. This unwanted light has been medically proven to contribute to the incidence of cancer worldwide.

3) Visual Clutter

Simply put, too much light. This can make it difficult to find your way around at night, Confusing to both tourists as well as the elderly with impaired vision, not a nice welcome mat and totally unnecessary. Many sign ordinances attempt to address this problem trying to make it easier to navigate around the city.

4) Glare

This is when light shines directly into your eyes, like an oncoming car with high beams. Glare often makes it difficult to see the traffic lights, roadway & lane boundaries and even pedestrians. There is nothing good to said about glare, it is most often the result of poorly aimed lighting. Remember if you can see the light bulb, it is probably causing glare. There is a recommended 85 degree cutoff angle that prevents most glare and thereby improving visibility.

5) Energy Waste

Light shining outside the intended target area and upward into the sky is totally wasted. This waste was originally estimated at costing over One Billion Dollars per year in the United States alone back in the 1990’s, with recent figures reaching as high as Two Billion Dollars (some say this is a conservative estimate)!!!

So what can we do?

Surprisingly there are solutions to all these problems in which everybody is a winner. Comprehensive Outdoor Lighting Ordinances are becoming common place around the globe and help protect the citizens, utilities, and governing bodies with enforceable standards. Modern outdoor lighting fixtures have been on the market for a number of years and new models are continually being introduced that effectively address these issues.

Many of these new fixtures are made to look nostalgic, while still offering quality lighting. This is important if you or your town like the historic look, yet demand a safe environment for pedestrians and motorist. No longer are we at the mercy of those poorly designed ‘elcheapo outdoor lighting fixtures’ like you see all over the countryside. They are often sold in the big box home improvement stores, or offered by utility companies as a security light.

The only real security they provide is the income of the utility company. This type of outdoor lighting more often then not only makes the job of vandals and criminals much easier. If your city, county, or state is still using these awful glare producing, light trespassing, wasteful fixtures, you should jump into action and insist that your tax dollars stop being wasted and your nighttime visual acuity improved.

Insurance companies and their attorneys are taking notes as well, why should they have to pay out big bucks on claims when the glary lights installed by the city are what caused the wreck. Why should they pay your insurance claims if your neighbors light shinning onto your property is what helped the vandals see so they could leave their artwork all over your wall while you slept? Fact is most graffiti and vandalism crimes take place right under or in close proximity to an all night light.

Keep this in mind, outdoor lighting fixtures that produce glare have been proven to cause motorist/pedestrian deaths by impairing their ability to see! And, in NC as in many states we often see on the news reports indicating that despite the bright lights, security cameras, barbed wire and even electric fencing, a business or property owner was robbed, vandalized, or even worse!

Now seriously, if all that type of “security” don’t prevent crime why would you be willing to waste your money and even jeopardize your safety and security by installing and depending on some wasteful all night yard light?

Do the right thing, replace that on-all-night wasteful outdoor light with a quality motion/heat sensing security light. It will probably cost less then you waste each year paying the utility company for the so called “security” light, after that first year you are pocketing the money you would have been paying to the utility company, if we all did this we could lower our electrical usage and possibly our monthly bills. You will also be helping out the environment and vastly improving your own safety and security, not to mention your neighbors. And while we are on the subject, join your local community watch program, if there is none then start one! When somebody’s motion light goes off at 3 AM don’t you want your neighbors eyes peering out the windows while dialing 911? This type of security has actually been proven to work!

Learn more about Light Pollution by visiting the following web site. Then start contacting local schools, astronomy clubs, environmental centers, city, county, state and federal officials asking that a comprehensive outdoor lighting ordinance be developed that can address these problems. We CAN have effective outdoor lighting without destroying our view of the stars, but not unless YOU help make it happen!

Ref: astrowan.org

It was a rather warm Summer night on Saturday here in Perth and we had clear skies, so I decided to head out and spend a few hours shooting some star trails. I decided to head down to Lake Clifton http://www.lakeclifton.com.au South of Mandurah, and about 100km South of Perth. On this visit, there was no moon not like on my last visit http://eos20.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/august-7/ so conditions were ideal for shooting star trails, but having some moon light would have been ideal so I could have used the ambient light from the moon to illuminate the Thrombolites http://www.lakeclifton.com.au/yalgorup.html so had to use my spotlight to bring out the detail of the Thrombolites. I brought along two cameras on this visit, I bought my EOS 7D and used my new EF-S 15-85 IS lens, and I also brought along my old EOS 300D and 18-55 lens, and I also brought along my 50mm f/2.5 macro to use as a large aperture lens. I set up both cameras on tripods with shutter release cables, and I shot a series of 30 second exposures and combined them using the Star Trails stacking software http://www.startrails.de/ which I find does a better job then shooting a single long exposure which tends to result in a image full of long exposure noise which can easily ruin a nights work, and by using software I can delete frames if necessary (Planes flying though the exposure, camera shake, etc) and I get a cleaner final result and can shoot star trails pretty much anywhere without worrying about getting a over exposed shot when shooting near bright light sources such as in the city.

On this night it was pitch black, with no ambient lighting out here, since it’s located a fair way away from the nearest towns, which meant the stars were easily visible with very little light pollution other then headlights of passing cars off in the distance. There was a bit of lightning off towards the horizon East of my location when I arrived, but that only lasted about 30 mins and didn’t affect my shooting since I had the cameras pointed South to try and get the best star trail patterns, unfortunately I didn’t end up aiming the cameras directly at the Southern Star, so I was a bit off, and didn’t get the full circle I was after, but the results still came out well enough.

It was windy on this visit, unlike on my first visit where it was relativity calm which resulted in some nice reflections on the water, and the tide was coming in which meant the Thrombolites were submerged again on this visit, and I ended up getting wet to set my camera up low enough to get the composition I was after on my final star trail series, but I think it was worth it for the shot I ended up getting. Here are a few of the photos from the night:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4261586-2-star-trails-over-lake-clifton

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4261582-2-star-trails-over-lake-clifton-thrombolites

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4262314-3-star-trails-over-thrombolites

Once upon a time, when night falls, kids can look up to the sparkling night sky, filled with thousands of stars shining down on them. Lying on their backs, they count the stars and connect them to form pictures, and imagine what the world would be like if they were up there. There is so much beauty in the natural world available to us to enjoy, so much unknown for us to explore, and so much for us to imagine.

However, recently stars are disappearing. Although they still exist, but we are covering them up with our light pollution. The stars, planets, and galaxies are all obstructed by our excessive use of light. On average, about 2,500 stars are visible to humans when nothing is blocking them. But now, only about 200-300 can be seen in the suburbs and a fewer than a dozen in cities.

Not only does light pollution erase much of nature’s beauty, it can be harmful to wildlife. Birds sometimes get confused by the lights, and end up flying in circles until they drop from exhaustion. Sea turtles wouldn’t next on a beach unless it was dark. Some scientists have even observed that too much light can be harmful to human health.

No matter how much pollution light is producing, it does serve a great purpose: helping us see at night. So as Robert Gent, astronomer, said “ ‘If we shine lights down at the ground instead of up into the sky, and use lower brightness levels, we can save enormous amounts of energy and preserve the beauty of the night skies.’ ” This is a simple and inexpensive solution to light pollution. Many cities and towns have already passed laws limiting light emission at night, making sure that it’s enough to be safe, while not too much to minimize pollution.

That way, we can bring back the beauty of the night sky, and open up a whole new realm of imagination for children.

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With the Delegates gathering in Copenhagen, for the climate change summit it’s about time we started looking at little known alternative technologies like Electroluminescence that could have a massive positive effect if used properly.

We are constantly told by the media that CO2 output is warming up the planet yet we use display lighting that gobbles up power, Light Tape® uses 1/20^th the power of Neon and Cold Cathode and 1/4 of the power of LED’s.

Light Pollution is not only making Starry Nights a distant memory it is having a major impact on Nocturnal insects and animals, Light Tape® produces light at a wavelength that can be seen up to 4 times further and at a fraction of the brightness of the incandescent systems causing light pollution, Light Tape® produces no infrared radiation and no ultraviolet emissions. Let’s light the venue not the sky.

We are poisoning our environment with the disposal of the chemicals, gas, glass and heavy metals used in the production of traditional lighting products, Light Tape® uses no glass, no gas and no heavy metals and is fully recyclable.

“Most lighting systems are designed around brightness, but it is becoming increasingly clear that brightness is not necessarily the optimum design point. Besides the problems associated with night vision, incandescent light systems consume large amounts of energy, produce heat are bulky and of lower reliability.”

Excerpt taken from “Electroluminescent Lighting Applications” By Chesley S. Pieroway Major, USAF For the full report go to: http://www.lighttape.co.ukknowledgeUSAF%20Electroluminescent%20Lighting%20Study.pdf

For more information on Light Tape® products go to: http://www.lighttape.co.uk

Email: info@lighttape.co.uk

Or call: +00 44 (0) 8456 170 697

Light Tape® uses less than one tenth of the power and is one third of the price of Neon and Cold Cathode display lighting, it is flexible, easier to install and maintain, reduces light pollution, produces no waste heat or infrared light, is fully recyclable, uses No Gas, No Glass and No Mercury.

Light Tape® with its wealth of benefits, versatility, ease of application, cost effectiveness and extremely low carbon footprint is fast becoming the chosen, viable alternative to more traditional forms of display lighting.
(1 Watt per Meter at 25mm (1”) wide, a 100m length of 25mm wide Light Tape® only uses the same power as a 100w light bulb).

###

What is Light Tape®?

Light Tape® is made up of a DuPont metal ribbon coated in Sylvania phosphor and encapsulated in a Honeywell laminate. Light Tape® has no glass, no gas, and no mercury/heavy metals and so is user and environment friendly. Light Tape® provides an 85% – 90% energy saving against other commercially available light sources such as Neon and Cold Cathode and due to its thinness (just 0.5mm thick, as thin as a business card) and being lightweight, affords inherent flexibility of use providing a neater, modern, space saving alterative that is easy to install with little to no maintenance and has a long working life. For further information go to: www.lighttape.co.uk

About Light Tape UK Limited: Based in Barnsley South Yorkshire Light Tape UK Limited is the exclusive distributor for Electro-LuminX products in the UK and Ireland.

For further information please contact:
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“In preparation for the meteor shower, the Bates Outing Club (BOC) sent out an email offering rides to Bates students who wanted to watch the stars from a nearby farm (graciously offered up by a local farmer). 80 students responded to the email, an overwhelming number that the Outing Club was not prepared to accommodate.” Read more.

Image source: http://www.thedailyinquirer.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/leonid-meteor-shower-november-2009.jpg

Grab a bottle of wine, a blanket, a pre-roll and some friends(or perhaps just a lucky lady) head for an area with as little light pollution stare at the sky and observe the universe being really cool. It’s the Leonid meteor shower and tonight is going to be the peak viewing night. Hundreds of meteors will be burning up as they enter our atmosphere and it’ll look really really cool. Peak viewing is from 1:30 am EST until dawn. If you have a camera get that thing out point it at the sky, open up that iris and leave that shutter open to get some shots you’ll be proud of. Happy viewing.

Coffee giant Starbucks will replace conventional lights with super-efficient light emitting diode (LED) bulbs in 8,000 stores by March of next year, according to Greentech Media.
The LED bulbs should consume about one-tenth the power of an incandescent and half the power of fluorescent bulbs. They should last 50,000 hours, giving them a lifespan of 19 to 20 years. That’s a big benefit for a business, which often has to contract out lighting changes. Plus, LEDs are cool to the touch, so that decreases cooling loads. LEDs continue to fall in price– roughly half as much as just two or three years ago. Boosters of LEDs argue that the technology can dramatically reduce our energy consumption.

Editors Note:  CFN offers lease-to-own financing for business LED replacement retrofit projects.   Considering LED as an alternative to your incandescent, fluorescent or CFL? Click here and download a PDF summary file.

Thanks to Remy C. for the tip.

I was driving home the other day and heard a siren. Sirens are notoriously difficult to pinpoint where they are coming from; they’re loud enough to hear but the noise echoes off of so many buildings and other hardscape surfaces that’s it hard to know where the emergency vehicle is until you actually see it.

But despite the flashing emergency lights on the ambulance, it was almost impossible to see. Why? Well, at least five or six other vehicles on the road also had bright flashing lights, including a couple of almost blinding strobe lights. There was a tow truck with a couple of yellow strobe lights, a bus with a bright flashing yellow light, a police car with its red and blue lights on (just for driving — they do that in DC), and a school bus with a blinding white strobe light on top.

It took me far longer to spot the ambulance in that three-ring-circus of over-lit vehicles than it should have. And that’s not a good thing.

Here are some of the extreme lighting issues we have to put up with on the roads in the metro Washington area:

• school buses with strobe lights
• tow trucks with strobe lights
• buses with flashing bright lights
• handicapped transport vehicles with tail lights that strobe when the vehicle is stopped
• super-bright blue headlights on cars
• super-bright red tail lights that cause retinal fatigue
• bright parking lot lights that are aimed into drivers’ eyes
• LED banner signs with super-bright strobe lights
• police car lights that are probably visible from Mars

As with noise, light can be a form of pollution. More light on vehicles, in parking lots, or on emergency vehicles isn’t the solution, because at some point everything just gets so bright that it blinds the driver. It becomes visual “noise,” and anyone with communications training can tell you that you quickly lose the audience when there is no focus on the topic.

Emergency vehicles need to keep their lights, but the police lights do need to be toned down. There is no need to blind drivers in order for us to see a police car pulled over at the curb. The lights make it more dangerous because they are so bright that you can’t see if the police officer is out of the car or not.

Strobe lights on school buses need to be removed. They hurt people’s eyes and can even cause a momentary loss of vision. Fractions of a second count when we’re driving. Really, why are they even there? If you are close enough to a school bus to even possibly be involved in an accident with it, you can’t see the strobe light. But if you are far enough away from the school bus for safety reasons, you get blinded. It seems to me that this is going to cause more tailgating rather than discouraging it.

A graphic arts maxim that applies to all areas of life is “When you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.” All of the lights on emergency vehicles might as well not exist if we can’t see them in the blinding glare of the advertising lights and useless attention-getting lights on non-emergency vehicles. Let’s stop trying to emphasize everything.

Officials at Herefordshire County Council have issued an enforcement notice to God’s representatives on Earth, demanding that the Moon be ‘taken down and dismantled’.  Local authorities made this extraordinary move after the Supreme Being failed to lodge an application for retrospective planning permission. 

The moon has been identified as a major source of nocturnal night pollution, according to Council leader Phillip Meens.  ‘We simply cannot ignore this issue.  Erecting a huge ball of rock in the night sky and then reflecting light from the sun off it without first applying for planning permission is in blatant breach of the Town and Country Planning Act.’

Council officials have already attempted to contact Our Father through various channels, requesting that He complete the relevant application forms, but have had no reply.  ‘We’ve written to Lambeth Palace, The Vatican, the Patriarch of Constantinople and half a dozen other organisations claiming to have a direct hotline to God, but none of them has bothered to reply.  Except the local synagogue, who told us not to be so bloody stupid; though that might also have something to do with our refusal of their application to extend their ‘beth midrash’, whatever that is.’

The notice will come into effect next week and failure to comply will result in court proceedings, with a maximum fine of GBP20,000 says Councillor Meens, who is determined to push the charge through despite strong opposition from critics who’ve dubbed the move ‘pedantry in the extreme’ and ‘a criminal waste of tax-payer’s money’. 

‘It’s easy to be tempted to let this one go, but I cannot in all conscience do this, as there are just too many safety concerns.  Just look at the guy’s track record: The Walls of Jericho – crumbled at the sound of a trumpet, The Tower of Babel – left unfinished, The Millennium Dome – well, enough said.  Additionally I have it on good authority that He spends most of his time in an ivory tower.  I ask you, is ivory a suitable building material? The guy’s a public menace!’

(Written 31 Mar 2009)

(via loveyourchaos)

When I sit up in bed, I see the low red dome of moon blazing between snarled shapes of dead trees with all the wrath of an African sun.

 It’s 10:30 at my parents’ house in Wyoming, and I can’t sleep. I see a dark shape—maybe Rowdy—slip hyena-like through a patch of light by the backyard fence; I hear her pass beneath the window. The grass makes the sound of fire.

 A single cloud, low in the sky and lit by the blood-colored moon, looks unreal and too close, like a prop made of paper-mache. The stars seem less than a mile away. They shine, undiminished, through the leafless trees, which glow in the porch light, every limb white and striking. Nothing moves.

 I put on a coat and shoes on the porch and go outside, walking up the dirt road until it’s too dark and I have to stop. Out here, the sky reveals its true color—not black at all, but a deep blue against inky shapes of mountains. The darkness seems to amplify the sound of a coyote barking from a distant part of the woods. Our three dogs pile around me, whining and pawing at my shins, and don’t seem to hear it.

 Beside me, a low hill rises from the pasture like a rounded loaf of bread. If I stand here long enough, the shapes of animals might be viewed as they slip over the horizon or stand like tin cut-outs for long moments before dipping into the darkness. When I was in high school, the dogs startled a herd of deer out of the woods on the way to the canal one night. I heard their hooves and saw antlers flash against the sky as they bounded past me, and I recalled a video of a hunter being gored by a mule deer; a moment later, six or seven figures shot over the hill in a tight bunch.

 I don’t walk far tonight. The road, somewhere in the darkness, is rocky and uneven, and all I really want to do is look at the stars. I’d wait for my eyes to adjust, but there’s nothing to adjust to—the ground is black, no matter how long I stare at it.

Map of artifical night sky brightness

A few years ago, I found a map illustrating the level of artificial night sky brightness in different parts of the world. Coastal cities and islands vary from neon green to white at the brightest end of the spectrum; Africa’s vast center reflects the impenetrable darkness of Joseph Conrad’s Congo, while a few lights cluster at its edges like a spray of pimples. With the exception of isolated cities and nearly the entire Pacific-West, the United States emits only a weak grey glow beyond the Mississippi—a likely by-product of suburban sprawl. At a closer look, one can make out black blobs scattered throughout the grey, probably marking mountain ranges and places like this—the sticks, the boonies, the middle-of-nowheres of the world that appear as abysmal pits amid an increasing array of shinier, more lively regions.

 I remember studying the clusters of light and tried to determine what they were made of. In Billings, Montana, I know that these lights represent at least two Denny’s restaurants and the LDS temple, which glows like a mythical white castle below the bluffs and the large houses that line them. One of those specks down on the bottom marks the house I rent with my boyfriend, near the lights of the strip-mall where we buy coffee and rent movies. It’s a comfortable enough life among the lights, but there’s mystery in darkness, and real, non-fluorescent beauty–especially on a cold fall night when everything seems stretched tight, brittle and sharp, pulsing with life from unknown sources. Animals respond to each other in the darkness; our single porch doesn’t phase them. In fact, from a quarter-mile away, it appears to be nothing more than a lower, lesser star.

 Tomorrow or the next day, I’ll head back to the city—a small city, just a dusting of light, but a city, nonetheless, with casinos and restaurants and thousands of vehicles driving to them.

 Back inside, I relax into bed, finding myself squinting into a beam of light. Out the window, the moon has risen, and looking at it surface, still unmarred by outrageous steeples and McDonalds signs, I guess I should feel lucky to have a clear view.

This is suppost to be an astronomy and photography related board, so where is the astro stuff? Its not really here. A while back I even joined a club for astronomy and even have access to darker skies then my back yard. The problem is weather and my work schedule. When its clear, I usualy work, or the moon is up. On my nights off, its usualy cloudy or I am wore out from the work week. Every so often, like ever few months, things will line up, no work, no moon, no clouds, but the one issue that remains is light pollution and while I can see more with the help of a camera and software, the light pollution eats the image anyway.

…at the University of Helsinki earlier this week when people had a chance to visit the 175 years old observatory.

You foreigners might now think that Finnish astronomy is very primitive but observations are no longer done from this site. There is too much light pollution to allow scientific work. What used to be at the outskirts of the city is today a very central location.

The exterior of the observatory is one of the most impressive in the city – and not among the easiest to be photographed.

After attending the Delaware Planning Commission meeting last Wednesday eve regarding potential development of the Delaware Golf Club property, it became clear to me that there is no easy solution to the Developer vs Observatory imbroglio. The image showing the Perkins Observatory property completely surrounded by the failing Golf Course property made it clear that the choice is either to preserve the Observatory or favor the desires of the Golf Course property owner to develop his property. I can’t imagine a compromise that would make both sides happy.

Unless, of course, you think outside of the box.

I believe that some of the Planning Commissioners were hinting, during the meeting, at alternatives to development for the Golf Course property. Would, for example, the owner be willing to sell to the City of Delaware or Ohio Wesleyan? I suspect the value of the property (as potentially developable) might be prohibitive (unless, of course, the Planning Commission bans any development on the site, thus reducing the property value; I doubt they would do that but who knows).

But that does not change the basic issue.

The Perkins Observatory is in a dangerous location. It is surrounded by private property in a prime area for development. Even if the current development plans are stopped, there will certainly be future attempts to develop the land.

So:

A proposal to the Delaware Golf Club land owner and developer: in exchange for the right to develop the property, move the Perkins Observatory and set up a fund for its perpetual maintenance.

Dismantle the telescope, hoist up the observatory building, and truck it away to a safe location.

Ohio Wesleyan moved the massive Eliott Hall on campus twice in the past, and much larger structures have been moved.

So where to move it?

The closest option would be the Stratford Ecological Center. Since it is a working farm, an observatory may be compatible with the Center’s land uses. Stick it out in one of the fields and create a fund that would preserve the Observatory and also fund the Stratford Ecological Center.

Of course, the Stratford Ecological Center may not be interested in an observatory, even if it comes with funds for the Center.

Another option is Camp Lazurus (Boy Scouts), about 1.5 miles south:

A third option is the Highbanks Metro Park, about 8 miles south:

The point is that these are three open, green spaces near the current Observatory site that are all used in some way (eg., they are not “wilderness preserves”) by humans. An observatory is a relatively low-impact land use, and indeed requires a relatively undeveloped area with low lighting. Importantly, funding that came with the Observatory would  help support the Observatory and the Center, Camp, or Park – helping to preserve these areas from development.

So?

Editors note: special thanks to boston.com

For most, the orange-yellow glow that blots out the night sky over metropolitan areas is the most visible drawback of high-pressure sodium and metal halide street lights.

But officials in charge of the street lights in Natick and Wellesley MA see something else: devices that are less efficient, less effective, and more expensive than a new generation of street lights using light-emitting diodes for illumination. Only a few communities, such as Los Angeles, San Jose, Calif., Anchorage, and Ann Arbor , Mich., have committed to the new technology on a large scale.

In Greater Boston, Natick and Wellesley are at the forefront of a movement to get rid of high-pressure sodium and metal halide lights by making the switch to LED fixtures.

“This stuff makes sense both from a green standard and a budget standard,” said Bill Chenard, the business manager for Natick’s Department of Public Works.

Within the next month, Natick will install 20 LED street lights downtown. If they prove as bright as the old-style lights, the town will begin replacing all of its 2,600 street lights in phases.

Though the initial costs are significantly more than for traditional street lights, officials in both towns say, the switch pays for itself in five years or less through energy savings and the reduced manpower needed to change the shorter-lived sodium and metal halide lights. After that, the savings – 42 to 52 percent in energy costs alone – go straight to the municipality’s bottom line.

For Natick, with an electricity budget of $226,500 this fiscal year for street lights, it would mean around $100,000 per year in energy savings, in addition to the reduced cost of sending out workers to switch out the bulbs. LED street lights last five to nine times longer than standard lights, Chenard said.

All of this is good news for advocates of less light pollution, like the International Dark-Sky Association. Founded in Arizona in 1988, the group pushes for laws and local ordinances that reduce light pollution, such as requiring shielded lights. The group also gives its stamp of approval to lighting devices that reduce light pollution. Both towns are testing Dark-Sky-approved street lights.

Previous incarnations of LED street lights weren’t up to par with their traditional counterparts, said officials in both towns, but the newest wave of lights promise illumination that’s better than the old-school street lights.

“The earlier LEDs – the technology wasn’t there yet,” said Donald Newell, the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant’s superintendent. He said the town has been testing LED lights for the past few years, but nothing had wowed officials enough to make the large-scale investment until now. “Over the past six months to a year, the big players have gotten into the market. . . . The new light fixtures are much better,‘‘ he said.

Wellesley will be changing over to LED, but on a smaller scale than Natick, with 500 lights to be replaced downtown.

Within the next two weeks, the town expects to receive bids from two light manufacturers. Newell said the process of switching the lights in the heavily trafficked area along Washington and Central streets will be spread over a few years to mitigate the cost of the LED lights, which are 20 to 30 times more expensive than the metal halide units they will replace.

But Newell said he’s convinced the new lights are a big improvement.

“They last longer and they give better light,” said Newell. “These lights actually aim down from the top of the fixture and it’s easier to direct the patterns on LEDs.”

High-intensity LED lights use hundreds of diodes in a tight cluster that can be focused in a specific direction, illuminating only the areas meant to be lighted. The diffuse light generated by traditional fixtures means that beams are sent in a wide arc, brightening neighbors’ yards, nearby windows, and the atmosphere as well as their target areas.

LEDs also use significantly less electricity than other types of lighting. Newell said the LED lights are 40 watts, compared to the existing 210-watt units. When electricity use is decreased, less coal is burned to provide the electricity, and less coal burned means less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Los Angeles recently began a five-year initiative to change all of its street lights to LEDs. Officials estimate the city will save $10 million annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40,500 tons per year. Earlier this year, San Jose received about $2 million in federal stimulus money to convert 1,500 of its 62,000 street lights to LEDs.

In August 2008, Anchorage approved a $2.2 million effort to switch 16,000 of its high-pressure sodium street lights to LEDs. Ann Arbor received $930,000 in grants to convert all of the city-owned street lights, or 1,800 of its 7,000 fixtures, and has replaced about 700 over the past two years.

“It’s been almost unanimously positive,” said Andrew Brix, Ann Arbor’s energy programs manager, of the public feedback. He said that the LEDs often give off better light than their predecessors and last at least five times as long, which is saving the city money. Ann Arbor is negotiating with the utility companies that own the city’s remaining street lights to do a full-scale conversion.

“There’s a lot of opportunity there that we’re still exploring,” said Brix. He said that at some point, the city will have a computerized system allowing it to control the brightness of individual street lights, depending on the time of day or any emergency situations that arise.

Chenard said the push for LEDs in Natick has been led by Town Administrator Martha White, who has been “aggressive” in urging town employees to explore green alternatives to reduce costs and help the environment. If the pilot program is successful, Chenard said, the town will be looking for grant money to help fund the switch. Success will be measured in the amount of illumination needed for public safety, though Chenard said he is optimistic.

“All of the research we’ve done and all of the info we’ve received says they have better light quality at a huge savings.”

Megan McKee can be reached at megan.mckee@gmail.com

Editors Note: Commercial Funding Network, Inc. offers lease-to-own funding to commercial, non-profit and municipal customers looking to spread the LED retrofit project costs over time. Monthly payments are structured to match the energy and labor savings.

Call CFN at 800-503-1972.  Through our relationship with multiple LED vendors, we can help you measure the potential savings  to your location by changing interior and exterior lighting to LED.  Download our FREE Calculator Here

To continue the same train of thought as we were having while introducing the Time Lag Switches(which are a good solution for the saving of the energy consumption) and the general intro for the PIR motion detectors, today we want to talk about a specific model – the SLFM360 from Timeguard – principles of functioning, where to locate it, and other features.

360º Flush Mount Ceiling PIR Light Controller – Features

• The SLFM360 utilises passive infrared technology to detect heat radiation of moving human bodies.
• Upon detection, the attached lighting load will illuminate for a user-determined time period.
• An integral daylight sensor ensures all day or night-only operation.
• Light Pollution and Considerate Lighting: Please be aware of the annoyance over-lighting an area can cause to your immediate neighbours.
• Light pollution caused by incorrectly installing a unit or over-lighting an area can be limited by carefully considering the location and position of your unit before installation.
• The light spread on all halogen floodlights can be reduced by angling the floodlight downwards on the mounting bracket.
• This will also concentrate the light on your property and limit the potential inconvenience of the light shining into your neighbours windows etc.
• Please see Selecting a Location for information on choosing the optimum location for any security light controlled by this unit.
• This product is suitable for indoor use only.
• Connected load must not exceed maximum 2000W filament/incandescent or 500W fluorescent/low energy lighting.
• Do not attempt to install if you are suffering from nausea or dizzy spells or on medication with similar side effects.
• If in any doubt, consult a qualified electrician.
• Not suitable for use with discharge lighting.

Parts included in the SLFM360 PIR presence detector

• PIR Sensor unit.
• Instruction manual. Please keep safe for future reference.
• Accessory Pack. Includes wiring cover, 2 x cable clamps, 4 x clamp screws and 1 x lens mask sticker.

Tools and parts you need for installation

• 3 core flexible cable.
• Electric/hand-held drill & bits.
• 75mm or 3 inch diameter hole cutter.
• Terminal or Electricians screwdriver.
• Small Philips screwdriver.
• Wire cutters.
• Suitable mains interconnect cable.

Selecting a location for the PIR presence detector

• The motion detector has a number of detection zones, at various vertical and horizontal angles as shown.
• A moving human body needs to cross/enter one of these zones to activate the sensor.
• The best all-round coverage is achieved with the unit mounted at the optimum height of 2.5m.
• Careful positioning of the sensor will be required to ensure optimum performance.
• The sensor is more sensitive to movement ACROSS its field of vision than to movement directly TOWARDS. Therefore position the unit so that the sensor looks ACROSS the likely approach path.
• Avoid positioning the sensor where there are any sources of heat in the detection area (extractor fans, tumble dryer exhausts etc.) including opposite any other light sources such as other security lights.
• Reflective surfaces (ie pools of water or white-painted walls) and overhanging branches may cause false activation under extreme conditions.
• During extreme weather conditions the motion sensor may exhibit unusual behaviour.
• This does not indicate a fault with the sensor.
• Once normal weather conditions return, the sensor will resume normal operation.

This SLFM360 is part of SparksDirect’s offer of Energy Management solutions – see the full offer on our website, or download the pdf catalogue.

A cool visualization of how far one is from McDonalds that’s been making the rounds lately. Of course, everywhere this is posted, people bemoan how terrible America is, how sad it is that McDonalds is everywhere, etc etc. But really, isn’t this just an example of urbanization? Below are some other maps that do not show geological or political phenomena (ie, ocean borders, lakes, etc) but still give the same map of the US. I’m sure there are others of the US/world out there…but I couldn’t find them.


All the streets in the lower 48 states (Ben Fry).

Satellite photo of the US at night.

The US at night, alternate.

On a cloudy night like tonight the Bangkok skies look quite attractive. Of course it isn’t totally benign. The city lights reflect back from the clouds. It’s light pollution – or “skyglow”.

See  http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skyglow&oldid=309197235

Dirty on Purpose has some of the coolest album art which really seems to capture the pop sensibility mixed with a DIY aesthetic predominant in their music.

Dirty On Purpose “Light Pollution”

Like what you see feel free to email me at tad@creativesquall.com and don’t forget to become a fan on Facebook. Check out the Creative Squall website to see how sketches grow up to be complete ideas.

The Milky Way as seen from Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009. (Photo/Morgan E. Heim)

With the prevalence of light pollution even in smaller towns, it’s not often that I’m privy to star-filled nights. But when my partner and I took a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park, I had to give it a try. Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous road in the United States, is known as an excellent place for star viewing. If you’re planning a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park in the next couple weeks, it’s worth missing dinner to see a sky like this. The road should be open until mid-October, or until bad weather hits, whichever comes first. So take some hot chocolate, and enjoy the view.

Got any tips for star photography? Would love to hear them.

It’s dark

well, there is a bit of light
on the edge of night

We have filled your dark
with our lights

fires at first
campfires, cooking fires
then torches
and candles

(now THERE was a technological leap)

then lanterns
I remember lanterns from childhood
visits to my mother’s family
fishing cabin

But now we put on laser light shows
and pollute your night
with our small lights

I feel as if I’ve lost
the WONDER of the starry night

Oh Lord
OH LORD,
HELP ME TO SEE

AMEN