The Switch to Outdoor LED Lighting Has Completely Backfired | Hacker News Reader

The Switch to Outdoor LED Lighting Has Completely Backfired

gizmodo.com

16 pointscodewiz12 comments

They mention a "rebound" effect in quotes, but its a cited thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_effect_(conservation)

This seems to be very similar to the concepts of "induced demand" and "jevon's paradox".

Essentially, these principles all seem to be saying that if something becomes significantly more accessible (whether by decreased price, increased efficiency, and/or increased supply), it's not uncommon for demand to increase in kind, as new uses become economically viable.

American Medical Association warns of health and safety problems from ‘white’ LED streetlights

https://www.ama-assn.org/ama-adopts-guidance-reduce-harm-hig...

The scientific reason you don’t like LED bulbs — and the simple way to fix them

https://theconversation.com/the-scientific-reason-you-dont-l...

The Dark Side of LED Lightbulbs

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/led-lightbulb-con...

My biggest complaint is the temperature of the LED lights. They are too white, jarring, and harsh.

We need the low spectrum of high pressure sodium lamps for street lights.

in all seriousness, I used to think those yellow lights were annoyingly dim, but now I think whoever chose them was right to seek these lights as they are less offensive.

https://theconversation.com/the-scientific-reason-you-dont-l...

That's why I still use incandescents at home. CFL were inferior in terms of color temperature, LEDs are even worse

High CRI warm LEDs exits but you have to go looking for them (source: I have lots of them installed in my house including some very warm lights in the bedroom that are lovely and comfort-inducing, much more so than incandescent bulbs).

can't you add warmth by putting it behind warm glass cover?

I have LED overhead room lights and they're pretty warm and yellow.

No, LEDs are missing spectrum emitted by incandescent:

https://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2016/October/le...

One of the major causes of always-on street lighting are the electricity companies who offer local authorities bargain rates overnight in order to smooth usage.

My local authority looked at turning-off street lights from 02:00 to 06:00 each day ( as they did before 1968 ) but calculated that the doubled cycle load on the sodium lights would lead to more failures. Given that unknown cost, versus fractions of a penny in electricity per light per night, they elected to keep the lights lit.

So now we have more LED lights and always-lit.

Reminds me of this aerial photo of Berlin: https://imgur.com/gallery/ZrQMsWQ

Reply on news.ycombinator.com