Future direction for Street Lighting in Northern Ireland

[martinyoung91]

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who is aware of the future direction for street lighting in Northern Ireland ?

I'm aware there have been several trial installations of LED and CFL lighting in the past couple of years, but is there any long term plan to roll this out provence-wide ? Tantalizingly, the street lighting document on the DRDNI web site states "Recent technology improvements mean that in future most new lights will be white".

I suppose, to answer my own question, the current (lack of) budget will preclude any radical change, for the foreseeable future, and sodium lighting will unfortunately continue to reign supreme.

[AndyB]

Danny Kennedy (DRD minister) said at his party conference that "... my capital budget for “new street lights” remains but I have had my resource budget to repair existing lights decimated"

[Trebeck]

Much prefer the modern white lights.

For years NI has used the dingy amber lighting (for want of the technical term), that doesn't properly light the roads and streets at night.

Any modern city/area now has white lighting which looks modern and safe.
(Also useful in worst case scenarios for eyewitness accounts, as colours can be properly seen eg. black vs blue cars/jackets etc.)

[bothar]

Belfast Telegraph article

At present around 11,500 of the 280,000 street lights across Northern Ireland are out, representing around 4.1% of the total.

[martinyoung91]

There certainly seems to be the beginnings of a shift to LED's. In recent weeks I've noticed a small scheme in Saintfield, a larger one on the Coleraine Bypass (to be extended to Lodge Road Roundabout after Christmas) and quite a number on the rebuilt A8 to Larne. At the same time there are still new groups of sodium lamps being installed, so it's hard to determine what the overall strategy is. Given the paucity of money these days I'd have thought LED's would have been a certainty, given the maintenance benefits for the future.

[flembot]

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who is aware of the future direction for street lighting in Northern Ireland ?

I'm aware there have been several trial installations of LED and CFL lighting in the past couple of years, but is there any long term plan to roll this out provence-wide ? Tantalizingly, the street lighting document on the DRDNI web site states "Recent technology improvements mean that in future most new lights will be white".

I suppose, to answer my own question, the current (lack of) budget will preclude any radical change, for the foreseeable future, and sodium lighting will unfortunately continue to reign supreme.

Belfast Telegraph article

At present around 11,500 of the 280,000 street lights across Northern Ireland are out, representing around 4.1% of the total.

Much prefer the modern white lights.

For years NI has used the dingy amber lighting (for want of the technical term), that doesn't properly light the roads and streets at night.

Any modern city/area now has white lighting which looks modern and safe.
(Also useful in worst case scenarios for eyewitness accounts, as colours can be properly seen eg. black vs blue cars/jackets etc.)

Danny Kennedy (DRD minister) said at his party conference that "... my capital budget for “new street lights” remains but I have had my resource budget to repair existing lights decimated"

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who is aware of the future direction for street lighting in Northern Ireland ?

I'm aware there have been several trial installations of LED and CFL lighting in the past couple of years, but is there any long term plan to roll this out provence-wide ? Tantalizingly, the street lighting document on the DRDNI web site states "Recent technology improvements mean that in future most new lights will be white".

I suppose, to answer my own question, the current (lack of) budget will preclude any radical change, for the foreseeable future, and sodium lighting will unfortunately continue to reign supreme.

I think LEDs are great. They deliver huge energy savings and reduce carbon footprint dramatically.

However, I think that DRD should be making an evaluation of the health effects on humans and animals of LED Streetlights that are using blue light i.e LEDs that use the 6000k-6500k colour temperature range LEDs that use the 2700k-3500k colour temperature should be fine as these do not emit blue light which is the same light that is emmitted from our computer monitors and mobile devices including smart phones and tablets.

What is the apparent issue with the blue light emmitted from Cool White LEDs I hear you ask?

Exposure to the light of white LED bulbs suppresses melatonin by up to five times more than exposure to the light of pressure sodium bulbs. The fact that white light, emitting at wavelengths of 400-500 nanometers suppresses the production of melatonin produced by the pineal gland is known. The effect is disruption of a human being’s biological clock resulting in poor sleeping and rest periods.

What is Melatonin?

Melatonin is a hormone found in animals, plants, fungi and bacteria which drives the cicadian rhythms of several biological functions.
Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland which is outside ofhte blood-brain barrier. It acts as a hormone, and is released into the blood.

Melatonin acts on melatonin receptors but it also acts directly because it is a powerful antioxidant, which protects DNA.

Research at the University of Madrid Complutense University[6] has claimed that long term exposure to LED Street-lighting can cause irreparable harm to the retina of the human eye. The Madrid study said this was caused by the high level of radiation in the’’blue band’’

See Wikipedia Article here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED_street_light

There appears to be compelling evidence that white light from LEDs affects our melatonin production by tricking the brain into thinking that it is daytime - However, there has also been publications such as that of Cambridge, USA

http://www.cambridgema.gov/citynewsandp ... DC88B.ashx

and that of Wigan Council, UK

http://www.wigan.gov.uk/Docs/PDF/Reside ... ts-FAQ.pdf

These publications state along the lines that "research suggests that the light levels from streetlights (both HPS and LED) are stoo low to cause significant negative cicardian or sleep health problems..."

Therefore, I don't really know what to think about LED Street lighting - currently in Northern Ireland there are a number of areas with LED street lighting now installed such as the A55 dual-carriageway strip from Castlereagh Rd to Forestside and there are more LED street lighting installations underway. But these installtions are all making use of the cool white LED lighting which is propagated to cause distruptions to peoples sleep.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27408303

It would therefore appear that scientists have differing opinions on the issue - bearing that in mind would it not be sensible to use LED Streetlights that do not emit white light and use warmwhite LED lamps instead, just to be safe?

[Truvelo]

The LEDs I fitted to my bathroom are 4000k which are white without the nasty blue/purple tint you get with excessively high colour temperatures. Too many so-called white LEDs are blue. Daylight is supposed to be 5000k.

[Patrick Harper]

But these installtions are all making use of the cool white LED lighting which is propagated to cause distruptions to peoples sleep.

All LEDs that use a wide colour spectrum are like that, including the warm white versions. The only way to avoid it would be to use LEDs that only output a certain wavelength of the spectrum, such as yellow, or even mercury lines like those of MBF lamps. But there aren't any volume manufacturers producing those, so...we're out of luck.

[flembot]

But these installtions are all making use of the cool white LED lighting which is propagated to cause distruptions to peoples sleep.

All LEDs that use a wide colour spectrum are like that, including the warm white versions. The only way to avoid it would be to use LEDs that only output a certain wavelength of the spectrum, such as yellow, or even mercury lines like those of MBF lamps. But there aren't any volume manufacturers producing those, so...we're out of luck.

Do you think that LED street lights are going to have a significant impact on humand and/or wildlife?

[Patrick Harper]

Well, LEDs are behind my computer monitors and my phone display, and I have observed that when I use them into the night I don't feel tired when I should, and it takes being away from them for about 30 minutes for the circadian rhythm to cut in and make it easier to sleep. I would rather have street lighting that doesn't keep me awake and causes the least disruption possible.

[bothar]

Northern Ireland LED rollout begins
http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/news-major-6m-led

[martinyoung91]

I had a scoot round Lurgan, Portadown, Banbridge and Dromore, and was surprised at the progress made, or more specifically the lack of it. I found 2 or 3 residential areas in BB with LED's and a few cycle tracks/walkways done in Craigavon, probably totalling 150 odd lanterns. That's less that 1% of the 20000 to be done, and 1 month in to an 8 month contract I would have expected somewhere around 10% of the lighting stock to have been switched over.

[Jonathan24]

I'm not sure if this has happened in any other areas of Northern Ireland however I've noticed recently that a small housing development close to where I live in Ballymena has had all of the lanterns changed to something which looks very similar to that which was historically used in such developments (possibly the Thorn Beta 2 or Thorn Beta 5?).

Now, these lanterns would normally have emitted an orange light (on the basis that they run SOX) but these ones actually have a white light. Does anyone know what these lanterns are?

Are the existing lanterns are being retrofitted with fluorescent tubes or LEDs?

[sotonsteve]

There is a Beta 5 lookalike manufactured by Hardie. Liverpool uses them.

[martinyoung91]

Out of interest Jonathan where in Ballymena are these lanterns installed ?

There are a number of developments around the bottom end of Greenhall Road in Coleraine which are lit with white lights, but are not LED's. Some of these have been quite recently done, and I'm wondering if this is the same sort of lantern. As you say they look like Beta 5 SOX's and it's only when you seem them at night the difference becomes obvious. Also off Greenhall Road is Carthall Park which is lit with the only installation of Philips Residium compact fluorescents that I am aware of in NI. Pleasingly retro, especially at night!

[Jonathan24]

It's a very small development just outside Gracehill, Orchard Hill:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Orc ... d42480d724

The Google Street View link still shows the old lanterns and whilst I think that the lanterns have only been changed recently, I can't be sure as I've only noticed them since the evenings have got darker on my way home (definitely have been changed since last winter).

To me, they don't look more like a CFL or equivalent rather than LED but I can't be sure as there is perhaps some kind of a filter on them which reduces the piercing glare that tends to be emitted by each LED.

[simonnicholas]

But these installtions are all making use of the cool white LED lighting which is propagated to cause distruptions to peoples sleep.

All LEDs that use a wide colour spectrum are like that, including the warm white versions. The only way to avoid it would be to use LEDs that only output a certain wavelength of the spectrum, such as yellow, or even mercury lines like those of MBF lamps. But there aren't any volume manufacturers producing those, so...we're out of luck.

Do you think that LED street lights are going to have a significant impact on humand and/or wildlife?

It all depends on spectral content and LED flicker. Current LED street lights - even at 4000K - have 4 times the blue content than SONs. LEDs emit light which is very rich in blue content,and this is very disrupting to the environment in respect of circadian rhythms because it effectively replicates the spectral content of daylight ..... at night. I have witnessed birds singing in trees in the middle of the night where 5000K and 5700K CCT LED street lights have been installed. Blue-rich LEDs also INCREASE light pollution due to Rayleigh scattering as light pollutin is a function of spectral content as well as lux levels.

Also there is general concern over LED flicker from drivers and dimmers. Both topics will be covered in the forthcoming research document from Public Heath England (PHE) due to be published in early December.

Add to these serious issues, the other problems of excessive glare and very poor light 'spread' from SMD (surface mounted device) LED luminaires, I am staggered by how gullible local government officers in believing all the pro-LED hype and propaganda.

LED technology has great potential to be developed into an excellent low-energy light source which is safe, truly environmentally-friendly, and effective in illuminating the roads.

Current models are fundamentally flawed and government needs to get a grip of the issue urgently in order to drive the necessary changes.

What is required is low CCTs (2700K-3000K max,)the use of reflector technology to reduce glare and improve light distribution, and strict limits on both visible and invisible flicker.

I predict that the vast majority of LED street lights fitted to date will need to be re-worked or replaced within a few years when everyone realises how bad they really are.

[Gareth]

What about mercury streetlights? They seem bluer than LED to me and were very common in the not too distant past. Did they not cause the same issues?

[A42_Sparks]

where in Ballymena are these lanterns installed?

North part of town including part of Fry's Road, Ballyloughan Brow and Carniny Road. I don't like them, they seem very bright to look at but I feel they don't illuminate the road properly particularly in the wet. There's something 'cold' about them when compared to the old orange sodium type lights.

[simonnicholas]

What about mercury streetlights? They seem bluer than LED to me and were very common in the not too distant past. Did they not cause the same issues?

The answer would be in the SPD curve, and where in the light spectrum the energy output is concentrated. I think there is some blue, but in very narrow bands, rather than blue-pump LEDs (and especially high-CCT LEDs) where there is a significant 'blue spike'.