Another problem with LEDs is that while they don’t “burn out” they will dim over time. If you look at a white LED you will notice a yellow phosphor covering the emitter chip, that phosphor converts blue light from the emitter to red blue and green that produce white light and is what made white LEDs practical for lighting however as time goes on that phosphor degrades the same way it would in a fluorescent lamps and after 30-50,000 hours of use you might only have half of the original brightness.

But the overly blue lights they have chosen – AWFUL!

It is quite possible to have LED street lights that are more like the sort of warm spectrum light we get in the afternoon. What they have chosen instead is something that broadly resembles midday light – which itself is not ideal for night lighting – but has the additional problem of an extra “spike” in the blue spectrum. In other words, it’s bluer than midday.

On an aesthetic level, I find this ghastly, robbing us of the warm beuaty of our cities at night. But this fades before the health consequences.

It is well know that our habit of lighting at night is partly repsonsible for the increases in cancer – because it supresses our natural melatonin cycle, and Melatonin is one of the most important things for supressing cancer in our body. Plus, it’s important for sleep.

It is also known that blue light is massively more effective at suppressing melatonin than yellow light, so the effects of this on our health are likely to be dire. Add on this the fact that LED lights seem to have increased glare, and the harmful effects of blue light to the eyes, and you can see why I am so angry at this.

It’s been done awfully by crude people with neither aesthetic sensitivity nor scientific knowlege. We should demand the replacement of the blue lights with warmer spectrum ones ASAP.

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-color-temperature-lighting-conditions-the-8449595.html

The above guide to colour temperature by time of day is an interesting resource. Unfortunately it neglects to include the intensity. But the gist is that for later periods in the day we have warmer light, with twilight being of a very high temp but obviously low intensity.

Now, one of the issues I have with these blue LED lights is how bright they are – brighter than the reading lamp I use at home. We really shouldn’t be making our nights as bright as our day, (see posts about Melatonin cycle and Melatonin’s vital role in cancer suppression)

Plus, I miss the night sometimes, especially as I’m a keen astronomer. I’ve hoped for years for something better than sodium lamps but have been disappointed by the lamps I’ve seen so far.

6500K is the color of the pale blue north sky in the middle of winter. People who do poorly under a constant supply of that light need a bit of lower K to straighten things out.

I sometimes go out for a walk after eating – especially if I’ve had to eat late because of work – or if I’m suffering from insomnia.

As things stand, with the old lights my tension is relieved and I’m ready to relax at home.

With the new lights, I’d end up feeling more awake than ever. It’s basically an encouragement to get less exercise.

And the nocturnal wildlife we share the world with doesn’t have the option of changing their bulbs.

Also – I understand that in San Fransisco people have been objecting to the new LEDs because the old character of yellow light, common in Hollywood movies, will be a thing of the past. It doesn’t have to be, though – warmer LEDs are available.

I really think we ought to do something better than suggest “lock yourself in your house, put on the blackout curtains, and use yellow in your own house”.

I’m all for environmental improvement in terms of CO2, but not at the cost of ruining the environment in other ways.

You can put whatever bulb you want in your own house.

You’re right that fuller spectrum is better than sodium lamp, but I really think the 5000K one is a bit masochistic. The worse thing is, I can see the first few in my home city when overlooking them from the hills and the wastage from sideways pouring light is huge – more than the old sodium ones next to it.

A bit of efficiency could be gained with better reflectors and give us a warmer hue in exchange.

5000K in side streets is certainly not good for folk.

“Sustainable Illumination” — we don’t have to screw up by installing the white lighting.
We _know_ how to do better than this.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/expert-available-to-comment-on-ama-policy-announcement-adverse-health-effects-of-nighttime-lighting2

Why let the claim of “clean and green” excuse this stupid mistake?

It took the American Medical Association four decades to warn about tobacco, it only took the A.M.A. one decade to warn about the health hazard of white light at night — which is exactly what these LEDs are adding to our lives.
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Light Pollution: Adverse Health Effects of Nighttime Lighting
https%3A%2F%2Fama-assn.org%2Fresources%2Fdoc%2Fcsaph%2Fa12-csaph4-lightpollution-summary.pdf
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The push to rush the high-blue-emitting “white” LEDs is going to completely screw up any attempt to find out what causes cancer — because the blue band suppresses melatonin, and melatonin is one of the ways the body suppresses cancer cells. More white light at night, more cancer. So who do you blame, the chemical companies, or the city lights? Obscure the cause, by adding white light.

You can look this stuff up. There’s no reason to replace the sodium lamps (amber, no blue in the light) with white light at nighttime — except to reduce the cost from powering the electric lights by shifting the cost to an external one, harming health.

For some reason lighting with a “5000k” temperature seems to be popular – but you have to ask the question “why do we want the sort of light we get at Midday late at night”? Shouldn’t we, purely out of aesthetics, ask for lights that are a bit warmer? Maybe early to mid afternoon?

But there is a more pressing reason than mere aesthetics – and that is health.

Blue light suppresses melatonin production far more than yellow light, and melatonin has many important functions. For one, it regulates circadian rhythym, sleep, and a host of other functions important for health.

For another, it’s one of your body’s most potent natural anti cancer compunds.

So, by having midday frequencies at night, you can really seriously damage your health.

It gets worse, too – LED lights with a nominal 5000k temperatuve usually have a sharp peak in the blue region – so they’re actually WORSE than midday daylight in terms of melatonin suppression.

And it’s not just us affected, too – the nocturnal wildlife suffers.

It doesn’t have to be this way – many manufacturers have started to produce lights with a warmer spectrum. Let’s encourage our councils to use them sooner rather than later.

It’s looking like we could replace coal with efficiency. That would mean that most of our hydro and gas generation could be used for solar/wind fill-in.

Getting our grid cleaned is looking more and more feasible.

As usual, they are just trying to make fossil fuels look more valuable when fossil fuels are poison and need to be done away with as soon as possible.

Here are another couple of technology advances that, once we all get these type of appliances, will drastically cut electrical energy demand in the USA:

This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
September 18, 2013

University of Maryland Wins Appliance Design Competition

The Energy Department announced September 10 that the University of Maryland won the second annual Max Tech and Beyond design competition for ultra-low energy use appliances and equipment for the second year in a row.

The team developed a heat pump clothes dryer that is nearly 59% more efficient than a traditional electric dryer. The winning prototype will be on display at this year’s U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Irvine, California.

With a comprehensive business plan, Ohio State University placed second in the challenge for its hybrid air/water conditioner that can achieve nearly a 73% energy cost savings over a conventional central air conditioning, dehumidification, and ventilation system.

The Max Tech and Beyond competition challenges university teams to go beyond the current “max tech,” or maximum technology performance levels, by exploring new design concepts that could become the next generation of ultra-low energy use appliances and equipment. Funded by the Energy Department’s Building Technologies Office and managed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the competition encourages participating students to connect with U.S. manufacturers and license their designs after successful demonstration. In total, eight teams spent the 2012-2013 academic year in their respective laboratories, fine-tuning their innovative technologies and gaining valuable knowledge of energy efficiency.

These efforts helped to produce ultra-efficient prototypes for demonstration and deployment in the global clean energy market. See the Energy Department Progress Alert.

And check this out!

This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.
September 18, 2013

Energy Department Dedicates Clean Energy Research Center

As one of the first Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) projects, the Energy Department, NREL, and Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing, North America, announced on September 11 a collaborative research effort to integrate plug-in electric vehicles into the power grid. Scientists and engineers at ESIF and NREL’s Vehicle Testing and Integration Facility will use 20 Prius plug-in hybrid electric vehicles from Toyota to develop and explore ways to prepare grid operators and energy infrastructure to accommodate the growing U.S. electric vehicle fleet.

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=19609

The renewable energy revolution is snowballing! http://www.freesmileys.org/emoticons/emoticon-object-062.gif

More environmental butchery from the Coalition Government.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/coalition-climate-policies-take-320m-hit-20130905-2t82a.html