Light Pollution, a growing problem

[BT Technologies]

I wanted to start a new discussion on the issues of light pollution and its negative effects it has on our environment.

The effects of Light Pollution (LP) causes much more than simply hampering our views of the stars. It wastes a great deal of money, contributes tons of C02 adding to the global warming issue, disrupts animal migration to name just a few.

Since it is now politically correct to speak about ways to help save our environment, now seems the perfect time to act!! Just imagine how much money communities would save by switching to full cut-off lighting fixtures and using reduced wattage bulbs? Wouldn't it be great to be able to drive around and not be blinded by the glare of stree lights that is wasting much of its energy? Wouldn't it even be greater to see the Milky Way in the center of a major city?

Perhaps now would be the time for us to speak to our city leaders/planners and at the very least mention to them and hopefully at the same time educate them on what LP is and what can be done to reverse it. As long as they realize that they can save money AND reduce the amount of emissions by making changes, we might have a way to make them listen!!

[Jim Fusco]

Hi Brian,
Years before they seem reserved on lighting. Now they will sell as much as they can. The IDA has good info but the approach to the townships shouldn't be LP but $. I found this out the hard way. I was able to give advice and it was taken when the center of town was redone. I also went to other towns giving info, some was taken most not. The one town that didn't take my advice was suckered by the power company sales man and purchased 100W LPS for the uptown. After the install, to drive down the street, sun glasses were needed. They had a 10 year contract. They were able to reduce down to 35W but had to pay as the were 100W's for 10 years besides the retro.
As this Global warming is becoming a important issue this night time lighting will start looking very bad. The only problem I see that LED lighting may come more into play.
You have a good point and maybe a good letter could be develop here for members to copy and submit to their newspapers. Focus on the waste and future effects of wasteful street lighting and towards global warming issue.
The charge of 1 street light per month is around $133-+ per month, that's a lot of money. Another thing is if you have street lighting then towns are required to have a certain amount to overlap as we see. However if there is none, then there is no requirements.
I know I'm saying a lot of things here, but suggest to line your ducks up before marching up-town and never mention LP or scopes.

Jim Fusco

[BT Technologies]

You have some excellent points Jim. It seems that if you mention astronomy or LP to someone, they give you this blank stare like we are from another planet!!

Like you mentioned, I believe the best way to approach the subject of lighting is to point out how inefficient the ones they are using are and how much money the town/city can save by offering alternatives. Also, the reduction in glare and higher visibility/safety should be the major points to get across.

Unfortunately, what is happening around South Florida is that a lot of cities are switching over to these decorative acorn type fixtures that put light EVERYWHERE but on the ground!! These things are blindingly bright and do nothing to enhance safety or visibility. They are merely cosmetic but are extremely inefficient and worsen the LP issues.

Originally Posted by Jim Fusco

Hi Brian,
Years before they seem reserved on lighting. Now they will sell as much as they can. The IDA has good info but the approach to the townships shouldn't be LP but $. I found this out the hard way. I was able to give advice and it was taken when the center of town was redone. I also went to other towns giving info, some was taken most not. The one town that didn't take my advice was suckered by the power company sales man and purchased 100W LPS for the uptown. After the install, to drive down the street, sun glasses were needed. They had a 10 year contract. They were able to reduce down to 35W but had to pay as the were 100W's for 10 years besides the retro.
As this Global warming is becoming a important issue this night time lighting will start looking very bad. The only problem I see that LED lighting may come more into play.
You have a good point and maybe a good letter could be develop here for members to copy and submit to their newspapers. Focus on the waste and future effects of wasteful street lighting and towards global warming issue.
The charge of 1 street light per month is around $133-+ per month, that's a lot of money. Another thing is if you have street lighting then towns are required to have a certain amount to overlap as we see. However if there is none, then there is no requirements.
I know I'm saying a lot of things here, but suggest to line your ducks up before marching up-town and never mention LP or scopes.

Jim Fusco

[Jim Fusco]

Hi Brian.

I have notice that with the acorn lights and many others like strobe and a driving a billboard truck with lighted signs on Rt41. At the same time at the resort I was staying at had sea turtles signs in the room asking to keep the blinds closed.
3/4 south of me they built a shopping mall. For a shopping mall they did good. Cutoff's and timers, however the one store had the power company install LPS's sunset to sunrise floods. I made phone call's acting as if I was another store owner. I did get more attention and it seem like I was not the only one making the call. However nothing happened.
I found though with street lights if you go to the township and request cutoff lights because the full face cobras are shinning inside keeping the baby awake and they will spend the $220 and have them changed. Keep in mind to question your neighbors carefully, if they hate the light put their name down too. Also you can call the power company and request a troubleshooter or get the lamp-man and request aluminum foil place inside the side of the street light that shines on your house,"but use the baby can't sleep thing". This method alone can help a lot of guys here at this forum.
Keep in mind the power company wants to sell as much power as they can and if a 20W bulb is needed to do the job, they will sell the township a 500W. It's really the fox in the hen house. All people concerned need to go to the township and make friends, shake hands and fit in. At the same time sharpen your knowledge and work the subject out carefully. Show you have much knowledge about lighting. Understand and read about lighting, and requirements. Suggest ordinances for decorative lighting, time limits ect. This reminds me I need to go to the township and show my face

Jim

[Jim Fusco]

Next post down is the reply and I can't delet this post.

[Jim Fusco]

Hi Brian,

There is peak time and bottom. As we know from living the times we use power. Morning 7A-9A then 5P to 10P. As the load drops these generation plants are in full speed. Better yet to give you a idea some of these coal plants take a week to start up. So anyway keeping these plants with load is better making $ than keeping them just spinning with no load waiting for morning peak, remember stock holders.
Most of the country is deregulated. Arnold re regulated Calf. Anyway this means a lot of things. One is, most if not all power companies had to have backup generation all the time. So what this means is if the PC is using 100W then it had to have 100W backup and ready if something happens.
PC had to be careful on their calculations. Years ago people need to list all electric appliances with the PC because generation and equipment was limited.
Today is crazy. Deregulation, New equipment, higher voltages, longer runs. The PC's can give as much as you want to buy or can sell. There are generation plants that back up to coal mines and burn right there, then move to the next hole. Pending what state, they can pump dirty exhaust in the air for the next 30 years. They throw this dirty power on the lines in the South East and sell it to Maine or where ever. Remember they are a company and are there to make money, and have stock holder that want growth. But we benefit, great service and always on.
Rebates. They are deals between the PC and the state. If the company request a rate increase to sweeten the deal. So your AC has a seer or 10 and you replace it with a seer 16,. The PC says to the state the person who brought this we will give them $500 and their savings will be 2% we are asking for a 1% increase? How about it
Yes the PC did install heaters, replacing the oil types for free or cheap. A lot of the small companies who wanted the HVAC work went nation wide to end that program. The PC's were looking to stop service all together and get out of the service end.
However if replacing hvac's didn't happen people would keep this heaters or AC's for 30 or more years. Running poorly, leaking fumes into the house and getting people sick. We can look at the car the same way, imagine if all the cars today were still 1969, cool but the pollution and exhaust would be really bad.

Jim

[BT Technologies]

The gulf side of Florida seems to be a lot more responsive to LP issues probably due to the migration of sea turtles and the amount of publicity they receive. We also have the turtles on the East coast here but very little is done to protect them and enacting any type of lighting ordinances over here is not high up on the totem pole for our cities.

I have a street light right on the corner where my house is and luckily last year when hurricane Wilma paid us a visit, the winds knocked one of the connectors loose. I actually had to have a FPL repairman come out to the same pole where the street light is at and repair our neutral line coming into the house. While he was up there he noticed the disconnected line going to the street light. I pleaded with him to not re-connect it back so he simply cut the wire and tucked it away so it would not catch anyones eye!! So far the light has been off for over a year!!

Getting back to the power companies wanting to sell as much as possible, what ever happened to the public service messages where the power company would actually pay for people to update their A/C units and other appliances with ones that were more efficient and used less power? Was this just a BS ad campaign?? Do ANY of the power companies REALLY want people to conserve??

Originally Posted by Jim Fusco

Hi Brian.

I have notice that with the acorn lights and many others like strobe and a driving a billboard truck with lighted signs on Rt41. At the same time at the resort I was staying at had sea turtles signs in the room asking to keep the blinds closed.
3/4 south of me they built a shopping mall. For a shopping mall they did good. Cutoff's and timers, however the one store had the power company install LPS's sunset to sunrise floods. I made phone call's acting as if I was another store owner. I did get more attention and it seem like I was not the only one making the call. However nothing happened.
I found though with street lights if you go to the township and request cutoff lights because the full face cobras are shinning inside keeping the baby awake and they will spend the $220 and have them changed. Keep in mind to question your neighbors carefully, if they hate the light put their name down too. Also you can call the power company and request a troubleshooter or get the lamp-man and request aluminum foil place inside the side of the street light that shines on your house,"but use the baby can't sleep thing". This method alone can help a lot of guys here at this forum.
Keep in mind the power company wants to sell as much power as they can and if a 20W bulb is needed to do the job, they will sell the township a 500W. It's really the fox in the hen house. All people concerned need to go to the township and make friends, shake hands and fit in. At the same time sharpen your knowledge and work the subject out carefully. Show you have much knowledge about lighting. Understand and read about lighting, and requirements. Suggest ordinances for decorative lighting, time limits ect. This reminds me I need to go to the township and show my face

Jim

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