Comment by NorthOf33rd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by NorthOf33rd | Hacker News Reader

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There is one area I'd like to see a universal ban on blue spectrum LED's - street and commercial overhead lights.

I live in Salt Lake City and there has been an unfortunate push by Rocky Mountain Power to replace all the streetlights with bright blue/white LED overhead lights. Their output is significantly greater than the lights they are replacing and the light is completely obtrusive. In the city there is the unfortunate and unavoidable issue of spillage into peoples bedrooms.

I've also had the unpleasant task of coaxing my dog to give up the dead birds that have suddenly started showing up my back yard. Likely attributable to the new "better" lights.

http://www.tracyaviaryconservation.org/lightsoutsaltlake/

I think this is a big problem in lots of cities. LEDs have clear advantages in energy efficiency and reduced maintenance costs and their use should be encouraged. But municipalities seem to be seduced by ultra-bright, blue-white LEDs because of the perceived "modern" look and because of the perception that it improves security.

While we'll never be going back to the orange glow of high-pressure sodium street lights, perhaps a compromise can be found. How about specifying 'halogen-match' (~2700K) colour temperature LEDs for street lights? White enough to create a secure environment, but warm enough not to quite resemble daylight and all the sleep-disturbing, wildlife-disrupting problems that come with that.

Another issue is the way that LED street lights are designed causes a huge amount of glare. Often as a pedestrian or driver, your line of site is directly into the LED matrix itself. With old-style street lights, reflectors or diffusers were typically used to reduce glare, but those have been done away with.

I believe that the highest lumens-per-Watt LEDs are higher color-temp, sadly, so I would think that the streetlights were optimized mainly for sheer output, and the cold, daylight temp was just a side effect. I doubt there will be a lot of enthusiasm for pulling down new, long-lasting LEDs, but possibly colored lenses could be retrofit to them...

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