Just like moonlight - new LED street lights flood the streets with light and illuminate true color
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Carl Dinse went out on a very cold night to take these compare and contrast photos of old style streetlamps and the new L.E.D. lights. The City of Shoreline is replacing all current lamps with the new, lower consumption and brighter L.E.D. lamps.
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| Photo by Carl Dinse |
N 195th Street
This is looking West from the northeast corner of NE 195th St and 1st Ave NE. The bright light at the top is a new L.E.D. street lamp. The street lights in the background on the trail are the old High Intensity Discharge (HID) high pressure sodium vapor lamps that until recently ruled the street lighting of Shoreline and Seattle.
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| Photo by Carl Dinse |
NE 195th Street
Looking east and down hill on NE 195th ST towards 5th Ave NE, 7th Ave NE, and the 195th St pedestrian I-5 overpass (which you can't see due to the darkness.) All street lighting is now L.E.D. lighting.
L.E.D. stands for light emitting diode. Each chip is a 1 watt L.E.D., making these street lamps a total of 40 watts of power consumption each. The high pressure sodium vapor lamps these replaced were using 100 watts.
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6 comments:
Each chip is a 1 watt L.E.D., making these street lamps a total of 40 watts of power consumption each. but these are not giving more lights.
I hate the new streetlights. They are way too bright and don't seem to illuminate as large of an area. On streets like where I live that only have a few lights, the bright lights mess with your night vision and you can't see things beyond the lights as well. It is not a natural light and way too harsh. It is hard to see pedestrians while your eyes adjust from dark to light and in Shoreline where there are no sidewalks this is especially dangerous. Plus it illuminates my bedroom and backyard like a prison yard.
I agree with BrianL, they offer a big reduction in visibility by hurting night vision so you can't see in the dark outlying areas of the light, it is clearly seen in the photos. The old is diffused and illuminates more area while the LED is harsh direct light bright and dark. I have been surprised by several pedestrians with their dogs on 177th. I could not see them until I was really close to them. Fortunately I was only traveling 15 MPH or less. But the speed limit on this block is 25 and most travel much faster since it is the first block leaving Lake Forest Park and the long block only has 2 street lights very far apart and no side walks.
Walkers beware!
Yeah I have to agree as well, though I'm a huge fan of generating the same amount of light for 60 watts less. Seattle City Light didn't go with a very good LED fixture, they make much better, more diffused lamps that are LED and appear more like a standard soft white incandescent, however they cost a lot more money.
LED light is becoming more and more commonly used in household and public area, replacing the traditional florescent and sodium vapor based lighting systems.
The LED lights essentially rob residents of the night as it looks like bluish daylight. There has to be a way to soften the LED harsh too bright lights. They glare, and the HID lights at least allowed for some ambience of the night. We are now all reduced to living in what feels like an over lit Wal-Mart parking lot or sports arena.
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