Holy crap! White Street Lights in Calgary! OMG!

[Mass_nerder]

The new LED streetlights cast 100% of their light toward the ground, rather than losing x% of the light to the night. Cuts down light pollution even further

[polak]

Will lack of heat be an issue in windy winter conditions like with LED traffic lights?

It would really suck for it to be icey, white out and dark in the city at the same time.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Bunk

City is experimenting with LED streetlights, which have a whiter hue, but I don't know if this is a location they're testing.

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation...g-Project.aspx

Just to be clear, the LED lights are white right?

Also how are the tollbooths coming? I'm willing to head down to the parasite communities on your behalf to meet with the residents at a public forum. Just remember, none of them can vote against you!

[V]

Quite a bit of inaccuracy in this thread.

The new white lights are mostly LED, although Calgary is also experimenting with induction lighting, which is also white. There is also some white light sources that have been around the City for some time, and those are metal halide. The white lights that the city used to use back before the orange lights was mercury vapour, a very old technology.

The orange light that you're used to is high pressure sodium, and if you look around the province you will find the really orange light which is low pressure sodium. LPS isn't banned, it's just a terrible light source with a negative Colour Rendering Index, which means that pretty much anything you put under an LPS source will look black.

LED luminaires do not have a greater efficacy (they aren't "brighter") over HPS luminaires, although they're coming very close. I expect they'll be more efficient within the next year or two. The cost is also coming down significantly for LED luminaires, to the point where they're finally making sense from a financial perspective.

The colour of the light source does nothing to impact light pollution. The shape of the fixture and the location of the lamp inside of the fixture is what impacts light pollution. The new LED luminaires do not improve light pollution either, at least for a significant portion of the City. Most of the HPS luminaires in the City are flat lens luminaires which are Dark Skies rated. The new LED luminaires are no different.

Calgary is actually significantly behind a fairly large chunk of North America when it comes to LED lighting. Hopefully they catch up, but they've got a long way to go, and they're spending way too much money on changing out old crappy poles to pay for new lights. I think there's an RFP out right now to change out 500 critical poles, which is a pretty big expensive project for a department like theirs.

Edmonton has installed almost 15,000 LED luminaires to date. Nova Scotia has pretty much retrofitted all of their lights, IIRC. Lethbridge has installed a number and are planning on putting an RFP out for a very large amount of luminaires. I believe NB is getting ready to change out about 70,000 lights. There is a ton of activity in the States as well, most notably all of the work that has taken place in Los Angeles.

[V]

Originally Posted by polak

Will lack of heat be an issue in windy winter conditions like with LED traffic lights?

It would really suck for it to be icey, white out and dark in the city at the same time.

Won't be a problem. There is nowhere for the snow to accumulate that would block the light.

[Jordan!]

Pics?

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

Pics?

NSFW!

[Jordan!]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

NSFW!

Awesome!

[puckluck2]

White power!

[Ducay]

I sure hope the LEDs are more reliable in the extreme cold. Any time it got below -30* the HPS lights can start to flicker around my end of town.

[wooohooo]

I find the white LED's really distracting... I'm not sure why, but I find them very distracting when driving. Like looking into really, really bright car lights. Although I like how it's brighter if you're walking, but driving it's a PITA.

Maybe I'm just not used to it though.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by saskflames69

You know, what happens when your thoughts get all trapped up like in a bottle.

Oh how I love newbies!! Such innocence

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by return to the red

are you sure they aren't LED street lights? Lethbridge has been starting to put these in in all the new developments. So much brighter and much more cost efficient.

These have been popping up all over Tuscaloosa too. Real nice lights

[TurdFerguson]

Originally Posted by V

Quite a bit of inaccuracy in this thread.

The new white lights are mostly LED, although Calgary is also experimenting with induction lighting, which is also white. There is also some white light sources that have been around the City for some time, and those are metal halide. The white lights that the city used to use back before the orange lights was mercury vapour, a very old technology.

The orange light that you're used to is high pressure sodium, and if you look around the province you will find the really orange light which is low pressure sodium. LPS isn't banned, it's just a terrible light source with a negative Colour Rendering Index, which means that pretty much anything you put under an LPS source will look black.

LED luminaires do not have a greater efficacy (they aren't "brighter") over HPS luminaires, although they're coming very close. I expect they'll be more efficient within the next year or two. The cost is also coming down significantly for LED luminaires, to the point where they're finally making sense from a financial perspective.

The colour of the light source does nothing to impact light pollution. The shape of the fixture and the location of the lamp inside of the fixture is what impacts light pollution. The new LED luminaires do not improve light pollution either, at least for a significant portion of the City. Most of the HPS luminaires in the City are flat lens luminaires which are Dark Skies rated. The new LED luminaires are no different.

Calgary is actually significantly behind a fairly large chunk of North America when it comes to LED lighting. Hopefully they catch up, but they've got a long way to go, and they're spending way too much money on changing out old crappy poles to pay for new lights. I think there's an RFP out right now to change out 500 critical poles, which is a pretty big expensive project for a department like theirs.

Edmonton has installed almost 15,000 LED luminaires to date. Nova Scotia has pretty much retrofitted all of their lights, IIRC. Lethbridge has installed a number and are planning on putting an RFP out for a very large amount of luminaires. I believe NB is getting ready to change out about 70,000 lights. There is a ton of activity in the States as well, most notably all of the work that has taken place in Los Angeles.

I am continually amazed at the niche knowledge of this board.

[Ducay]

Threadssurrection!

[Bunk]

Downtown's street lights (as well as other areas) do use white coloured lights already (and have for a long time).

[TorqueDog]

I decided one day that I would change all the bulbs in my apartment to 5000k LEDs from the normal 2600k incandescent bulbs I had. I loved the look and the natural feel of the whiter light output.

But after a couple days, I noticed that using whiter lights inside gave the apartment a colder feel to it. The cooler colour temperature actually changed the feel of the room entirely to something that was less warm and inviting. So I've abandoned that and have changed the bulbs back to a warmer colour temperature.

[nieuwy-89]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

I like the sodium vapour lights in Calgary; they give a nice warm light

I too like the softer glow of sodium vapour but LED is the way of the future. Within 10 years all major cities will be entirely LED. These things pay for themselves in a very short time with the power savings.

[Acey]

Almost all the lights have been changed to LED in Lethbridge and I can't believe the difference it has made. Its like the exact colour of moonlight. Completely changed the city at night.

[V]

Originally Posted by Bunk

Downtown's street lights (as well as other areas) do use white coloured lights already (and have for a long time).

Yup, Metal Halide, which is actually even less efficacious than High Pressure Sodium.

COC is looking at a 1,500 luminaire pilot to swap out HPS to LED. I believe the design work is mostly complete, and the installation should start soon.

I also saw that Transit is looking at upgrading the lighting in a lot of their parking lots to LED.