Minimising Light Pollution - Bright Doesn’t Equal Safe
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Flagstaff is located in the dry West and it doesn’t have a lot of trees to block the street lights within the city and the air is fairly clean. This means that the distance that light pollution travels is astonishingly far. For example, from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon atr night, you can see the lights of Phoenix, as well as Las Vegas.
As a result, the city has strict lighting ordnances.
Health Impacts of Bright Night Lighting
Scientists are now just starting to understand the impact of nighttime lighting on animals and humans. Bright lights confuse animals and can alter everything.
Examples: frogs’ mating activities are disturbed, communication among coyotes is afected, baby turtles get confused finding their way to the sea and nocturnally migrating birds become disoriented.
The effects also extend to human health with new research suggesting that living in a neighborhood that’s too bright at night can interfere with the production of a tumor-suppressing hormone in women, raising the risk of breast cancer.
Bright Doesn’t Mean Safe
Contrary to what most people believe, the key to visibility isn’t intense light, but evenly spread light. Brighter isn’t safer and can even be more dangerous.
If a building has a typically blinding white, security lighting you can’t readily see someone in the shadows between lights. Your eyes can’t deal efectively with the contrast.
So stark white spotlights, or the dazzling white lights used at sportsfields that are visible for miles are not as effective as strategically placed, well-shielded fixtures that blanket the surrounds of a building in a mellow light.
Another example: At Flagstaff’s Thorpe Park shielded fixtures were installed last year and players can actually see the ball better without “light bombs” in their eyes.
This ”mellow lighting” can be provided by energy efficient and/or solar outdoor lights
So turn the brightness down to be safer, save yourself money and help the environment by using energy efficient lighting
Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) vs LED Lamps
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Compact fluorescent lamps cut greenhouse gas emissions and running costs by up to 75% whilst producing as much light as traditional incandescent globes.
The most popular versions come as plug-in compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that are a direct replacement for incandescent globes. Traditional CFLs deliver most of their light to the sides, so an effective reflector may be needed to direct the light.
Some points:
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Low voltage halogen lamps are not low energy lamps: each one generates a kilogram of greenhouse gas every 15 hours—about the same as an ordinary 60 watt globe, although it does produce a little more light. Halogens are not easily replaced by more efficient alternatives, so installing them locks you in to high lighting bills.
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Fit lower wattage globes (or compact fluorescent lamps) in bright lights, especially down lights and spot lights: save up to 75% of the electricity.
- Select light fittings with reflectors that direct light where you want it and do not absorb too much light—coloured glass can halve light output, creating a need for higher wattage lamps.
LED lamps (LED means light emitting diode)
These are beginning to appear for outdoor use and specialised applications like night-lights. These lamps are very long-lasting and efficient. We’ll see a lot more of them in coming years because they have better light output that CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) at 100 lumens per watt, are 40 per cent brighter and have five times more life expectancy.
LEDs are the best bet for energy efficient garden and landscape lighting. An LED can go on for over 10 years without needing to be replaced.
You can reduce the money you spend on outdoor lighting with LEDs as they can be kept on for longer more economically, because of their low energy consumption.
LEDs are also ideal for spotlights, downlights and wall washers—where directional light is required from an extremely focused light source.