I see that LED streetlamps are now being fitted in sidestreets as well as main roads.
The only problem I have with these lights is that they are so "cold". The ones being rolled out seem to have a colour temperature of around 5K (approx daylight) and look very blue.
LED Streetlamps
Re: LED Streetlamps
That seems to be the norm. Just come back from holiday and they had LED lights just about everywhere.
I presume the closer the colour temperature to normal daylight the more illumination per W of power.
It only looks odd while you have the older warm lights to compare against.
I presume the closer the colour temperature to normal daylight the more illumination per W of power.
It only looks odd while you have the older warm lights to compare against.
Re: LED Streetlamps
Of course, the more important question is whether they light effectively (which isn't so dependent on the colour temperature)
Re: LED Streetlamps
There an interesting article about LED streelight replacement which covers colour temperature. Apparently Westminster Council made a decision to go with warmer LEDs (3000K), which I believe are slightly less efficient than the blue ones but still a big saving over traditional streetlighting.
http://luxreview.com/article/2014/11/wh ... etlighting
http://luxreview.com/article/2014/11/wh ... etlighting
Re: LED Streetlamps
It depends on what you want/need form street lights.
The old sodium orange lights where very efficient but had such a narrow colour band that it was impossible to see colour with them.
But seeing colour wasn't seen as important and lower running costs and other factors ensured sodium lighting was adopted.
Colour temperature of the light is Important as our eyes are more sensitive in the green and drops off towards Blue and Red.
But I think we are more sensitive in the warmer than cooler colour temperature according to info on the web.
Interestingly when I upgraded my motorbike headlamp to a HID (arc) I tried a number of colour temperatures and the higher values (for the same wattage) gave a clearer brighter view ahead.
6000K worked best and is what I now have. Lots on new cars also use that sort of colour temperature.
But from the link it seems its more important that the light is designed to work with the lamppost spacing and height.
Not sure on the health and environment issues mentioned. I suspect people spend more time looking at their bright smartphone screen day and night.
The old sodium orange lights where very efficient but had such a narrow colour band that it was impossible to see colour with them.
But seeing colour wasn't seen as important and lower running costs and other factors ensured sodium lighting was adopted.
Colour temperature of the light is Important as our eyes are more sensitive in the green and drops off towards Blue and Red.
But I think we are more sensitive in the warmer than cooler colour temperature according to info on the web.
Interestingly when I upgraded my motorbike headlamp to a HID (arc) I tried a number of colour temperatures and the higher values (for the same wattage) gave a clearer brighter view ahead.
6000K worked best and is what I now have. Lots on new cars also use that sort of colour temperature.
But from the link it seems its more important that the light is designed to work with the lamppost spacing and height.
Not sure on the health and environment issues mentioned. I suspect people spend more time looking at their bright smartphone screen day and night.
Re: LED Streetlamps
We have had LED streetlights installed here in NZ and the overspill from them is far less than previous lighting so the night sky is more viewable we have LED almost throughout the house now too as we have solar on the roof it made sense to go the whole hog.