Its a dark day in Ennis !

Or should I say, its going to be a darker night in ennis from now on.

I was passing through Ennis today and I saw workers changing those bloody horrible orange sodium lights for semi cut off lights. Not full cut-off but its an improvement.
If only the rest of the country would follow suit.
Whoever though of illuminating the streets with these ineffecient orange lights ??

That is good news. Most of the orange lights here seem to be high pressure sodium, which has the same poor color rendition as low pressure sodium but they use more energy and have a wider spectrum that can't be filtered out as easily as low pressure sodium. The blue-white "cobra" streetlights are even worse send nearly half of the light into the sky, are less efficient and become less and less efficient as time goes on.

I wonder if we'll ever have on demand streetlights that only turn on when a car is in range? Florescent and sodium/mercury discharge lights are too slow for this application, halogen and conventional incandescents are too inefficient and unreliable. LED and light emitting polymers are promising, but not yet bright enough for some applications. These might one day be inexpensive enough to place many low full cutoff lights (embedded in concrete?) rather than a few high bright lights which attempt to illuminate the road, the landscape, the clouds and the universe.

That is good news. Most of the orange lights here seem to be high pressure sodium, which has the same poor color rendition as low pressure sodium but they use more energy and have a wider spectrum that can't be filtered out as easily as low pressure sodium. The blue-white "cobra" streetlights are even worse send nearly half of the light into the sky, are less efficient and become less and less efficient as time goes on.

Yea but if they are willing to pay for bad hps, then we can tell them to save money by using FCO's in future. Conviently forgetting about the electricity cost of LPS.

I wonder if we'll ever have on demand streetlights that only turn on when a car is in range? Florescent and sodium/mercury discharge lights are too slow for this application, halogen and conventional incandescents are too inefficient and unreliable. LED and light emitting polymers are promising, but not yet bright enough for some applications. These might one day be inexpensive enough to place many low full cutoff lights (embedded in concrete?) rather than a few high bright lights which attempt to illuminate the road, the landscape, the clouds and the universe.

I've seen them in brochures but not on a road. Anyway in Ireland, someone would sue because the light scared them while they were driving and they have been metally scarred for life... Most motorways in Ireland are not lit so lets not give them any excuses to light them up

Most motorways in Ireland are not lit so lets not give them any excuses to light them up

good point, that could backfire very easily!

I wonder if we'll ever have on demand streetlights that only turn on when a car is in range?

We don't need street lights to come on when a car is in range, cars already have lights, which are already brighter than need be. We need cost efficient and purpose efficient lights that don't pollute, so our elderly inhabitants and children are safe.
Bill H.

I wonder if we'll ever have on demand streetlights that only turn on when a car is in range?

We don't need street lights to come on when a car is in range, cars already have lights, which are already brighter than need be. We need cost efficient and purpose efficient lights that don't pollute, so our elderly inhabitants and children are safe.
Bill H.

This is also coming down to individuals, not just councils, to play their part. Having neighbours with 500W+ yard lights to illuminate approx 70 sq meters of garden is just ridiculous... and then they have them at an almost level angle with the lamp, instead of pointing down. They are the real culprits, cuz they just don't listen.
Councils do, because it shows. Already, so far, all the new lights errected on the new stretches of motorways are full cut-off, Look at them at Kinnegad next time you are heading for Tullamore/The West.

Seanie.
Seanie.