Author Topic: LED light bulbs  (Read 18124 times)

Brad Johnson

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #50 on: January 09, 2014, 12:24:16 PM »
Brad, I love my house when it gets natural ambient light.  I just want MORE natural ambient light.

I figured "noonday sun" would be nice, rather than ratpiss candleflicker dungeon yellow.

These are a skosh past noonday sun, though.

Try the Philips 5000K lamps.  Not quite as harsh as the 6000K lamps you tried.  Still pretty hard and contrasty to most folks, but might fit your needs.  You may be able to pick one up locally.  I just checked and both Lubbock Home Depot stores show them as in stock.  Philips p/n 425264.  Home Depot sku 720815.

Brad
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KD5NRH

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #51 on: January 09, 2014, 03:16:06 PM »
My burb of Milwaukee is also switching over to LED. Generally only on streets where there's been major digging/resurfacing going on. We have the really horrid monochromatic orange low pressure sodium lamps on almost all of our residential side-streets, I remember them going in sometime in the late 70's as a child, probably in slightly delayed response to the 70's energy crisis, and Prez. Carter encouraging everyone to wear sweaters etc.  :P  Because of their almost single-line emission, and kind of close to the yellow/green peak of human sensitivity, they were the most efficient lamp for a long time.

The monchromatic nature of them has another advantage, given the crappy control of light pollution.  Observatories can notch filter out the LPS glare, while still seeing most of the night sky.

90% of "not enough light" problems are actually "too much light, poorly directed" problems that people "solve" by dumping in more light to overpower the glare their original "solution" caused.  Thus, LEDs, being directional, will actually force a lot of problems to solve themselves.  As an example of how much better directed lighting is, compare the following situations:


In the first, more light shines in your eyes than on the area you want to see.  Stupid people perceive this as "better" because they see more light.  In the second, the light goes on the subject, rather than being wasted as uplighting and glare.

zahc

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #52 on: January 10, 2014, 12:20:24 PM »
I talked to a guy that does gas station lighting. He said that the Cree led fixtures were letting them make things much more bright and evenly lit, without violating light-pollution laws.

I knew there were OSHA regs for minimum light levels, but I did not know there were rules about having too much.
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Brad Johnson

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #53 on: January 10, 2014, 12:29:20 PM »
Darks Skies initiative for minimizing light pollution.  LEDs are a boon for compliance, being so inherently directional.

Brad
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

Gewehr98

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #54 on: January 10, 2014, 01:16:34 PM »
Yeah, if you want to see how much low pressure sodium lights ooze light pollution, just try to take a long-exposure night photo of the Milky Way. 

Even with no moon out, you really have to find a secluded spot away from population centers. 
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TechMan

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #55 on: January 10, 2014, 01:34:42 PM »
Yep, our lighting designers and electrical engineers are very concerned about light pollution when they are doing their designs.
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KD5NRH

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Re: LED light bulbs
« Reply #56 on: January 12, 2014, 02:42:20 AM »
Yeah, if you want to see how much low pressure sodium lights ooze light pollution, just try to take a long-exposure night photo of the Milky Way. 

Even with no moon out, you really have to find a secluded spot away from population centers.

Around here, I'd guess 90% of the pollution isn't LPS.  If it was, I'd have sprung for a LPS filter for some of my astrophotography.  Most of it is commercial accent lighting, including McDonalds' new idea of having lots of pointless uplighting, and nearly everybody's fascination with high-glare bollard lights.