Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

They operate at any time of day..Not just between the hours of midnight and dawn.:rolleyes:

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

That was when it was as easy to see them at night as in daylight ;)

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

Inform your local council and they (well Northants CC did ) will come out and put a shield on one side to prevent it lighting your property up. Worked for me.

Wasn't a brilliant solution, but I admired their commitment. A set of blackout curtains as well sorted the problem.

I still have problems with those cheap B&Q night lights that are only about 10watts that fill my rear bedrooms from adjacent properties. More a problem for my visitors and not me.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

This would be awesome!

Just imagine living in a place where it goes dark at night time. It would certainly improve our quality of life. The original justification for having so much light at night was crime prevention but security has improved a lot over the years. Apart from those damn flood lights that people install above their front door so when you walk past their house you get blasted with 900 quadrillion watts of scorching light. Idiots.

Who cares what MP's think. They do all they can to promote fear and distrust amongst we who have to pay their way. MP's should keep their mouths shut unless they have something useful to say. Idiots.

Who cares what Local Authorities think. They want as many lights as possible so they need more maintenance and 'investment' so that can justify taking as much of your cash as they can get away with. Also Idiots.

Darkness at night time. Who would have thought.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

Agreed. Comparing the sky where we often holiday in the far reaches of Scotland with Surrey - in between every star we see at home there are a thousand or more visible. An amazing sight.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

There was an article some years back in New Scientist about "low pressure street lights" that used much less juice. You could install more of these to provide better lighting rather than simply more. This reduces glare upwards and make things safer for driving.
I don't remember the figures but the power reductions was such that you could double the number of lights and still make massive savings off the leccy bill.

One the crime concerns it was noted that the villans likes shadow so by having more less bright lights you reduced shadow you also (in theory) could make things safer.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

Yesterday they came around our street and fitted low energy bulbs in our street lights..

The only difference I noted last night was that the light they gave out was blue rather than yellow.:erm:

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

I used to live near a road that had a lot of red lights. Very busy at night, too.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

There's one small problem with this idea. How do you actually switch off all the street lamps at once at a set time?

AFAIK, most street lamps in the UK work on photocells to turn and off when the light falls below a certain level. Most lamps are also wired directly into the mains on what are called "unmetered supplies". In other words, they're not all fed down a special cable with a switch and meter at the Town Hall end, but just into the normal supplies which run to our houses.

The Buckingham CC trial was switching off lights in areas completely, not for part of the night.

As the BBC News story alludes, it would require massive investment in new technology and probably someone to visit every street light in the UK to fit it.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

It probably would involved a massive investment although the costs could be reduced by using remote control switches that are connected to the control system via a mobile phone network.

Costs could be further reduced by fitting the switches to lights during routine maintenance.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

LED lights regulated by a PIR so that they come on when actually needed. Fitted during routine maintenance.

Right, we've sorted that one. Next!

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

We used to have bluish street lights. It was great to see bats dashing past collecting flying insects that were attracted to them. Then they changed the lights to sodium. Never saw bats in the street since (only in the back garden). Be great if they returned!

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

The guy who regularly has to swap street light bulbs around here says that a huge saving would be made if the council paid for QUALITY lamps that lasted for years and not the low cost rubbish they are importing from China which only last a few weeks.

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

Perhaps they should follow Surrey's example:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-11275951

Re: Fears over street light cut-backs
 

i concur however i am suprised something like that was not implemented accross the board years ago