LED street lights

I’ve just returned from a short visit to Birmingham and discovered the city council are replacing all their old street lights with LED street lights.  And not only Birmingham, Liverpool and Warrington are doing the same.  The carbon savings are said to be at least 60% but the cost savings despite the high start up expense  are enormous as we have covered previously on this blog for domestic situations.  Street lighting is on so much all the year round (but particularly in winter), despite the cheaper electricity that councils will buy the savings will be very fast.

The articles linked to above said that LED street lights produce brighter light than the old lighting and are therefore safer.  The picture shown at night suggests that.  My experience was that it was slightly worse or about the same.  It depends on the spacing of the lamp posts and obstacles like trees.

The light produced by the LED street lights I saw was not warm white but that produced by cycle lights.  However, this is perfectly adequate for the purpose and looks to all intents and purposes like moonlight.  If more councils decide to install LED street lights  then not only will we see carbon savings but also a continuing fall in the peak electricity demand.

Neil