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  #61  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2017, 6:47 PM
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Originally Posted by yaletown_fella View Post
The city replaced the acorn lights with cool white LED fixtures on Shaw Street (near Christie & Bloor) Hopefully theres a way to remove or program the bulbs to only illuminate 50% of the diodes.

Good to hear. The fixture used in the test area closest to my house are bland to say the least.
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  #62  
Old Posted Feb 27, 2017, 12:54 AM
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Originally Posted by niwell View Post
When I was in Northern Ontario for work a bunch in summer / fall of 2015 I noticed that most towns had completely switched over to LED. Like, 100% - not just in some areas or as part of life cycle upgrading. I would imagine there were some infrastructure grants involved and some sort of cost-benefit analysis to show that it was worth it to do so.
Thunder Bay is somewhere around 75% converted and we only started the process two years ago. We're in a situation where we have little choice, the cost of hydro is killing us.

The city still hasn't found a decent LED fixture for arterial roads, but they've got some samples set up around the city. My street was converted to LED last fall, the first artery in the city to have them.

The downside of the LED lights we use is that the smaller residential ones don't have diffusion lenses, you can see the actual LEDs with the naked eye, so when you do get a look at one while driving, it's quite bright compared to the black sky, relative to the old sodium arc lamps which were only a little bit less bright, but the light was diffused around them and there wasn't a solid black background almost touching the light. People here have said the LEDs are like looking at an eclipse.
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  #63  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2017, 5:29 AM
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Fortis Alberta will be changing out about 3200 lights this year in Airdrie to LED. Only doing the cobra heads from what I have read. So the more decorative lights will remain as they are.
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  #64  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2017, 6:29 AM
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Our street (in Calgary) got converted to LED this past week, different but I don't mind it. LEDs will seem normal soon enough no different then how we all quickly got used to the orange sodiums some 30 years ago.
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  #65  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2017, 6:35 AM
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I don't remember what the lights were like before. 30 years ago puts me at 4-5 years old.
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  #66  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2017, 2:37 PM
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If I recall correctly, Calgary converted from the white mercury vapour lighting to the amber sodium lighting in the late 70's/early 80's. Plenty of people didn't like the new amber lighting back then but the calls to stop the conversion quickly subsided as people just got used to the new lighting - same thing will happen with the current push to LEDs as well.
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  #67  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2017, 9:47 PM
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Originally Posted by speedog View Post
If I recall correctly, Calgary converted from the white mercury vapour lighting to the amber sodium lighting in the late 70's/early 80's. Plenty of people didn't like the new amber lighting back then but the calls to stop the conversion quickly subsided as people just got used to the new lighting - same thing will happen with the current push to LEDs as well.
What was the mercury lighting like?
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  #68  
Old Posted Mar 12, 2017, 9:59 PM
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Similar or same as metal halide, which are the ones that once turned on if turned off and on again take forever to be able to come back on.
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  #69  
Old Posted Mar 13, 2017, 1:33 AM
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Mercury lighting was like the LED lighting, but not quite as bright and much bluer, sometimes almost greenish. We used to have it on a couple bridges here. It's no longer used because of the mercury content.

We also had one bridge that had bright red lights, almost like traffic lights, but I don't know what kind of light those were.
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  #70  
Old Posted Mar 13, 2017, 2:48 AM
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You are so correct about the almost greenish tinge of the mercury vapour lights and how long they took to get up to full brightness. It was so weird to come into Calgary from the south at night when the conversion from mercury to sodium happened, one was so used to the white lights that the amber one's looked odd and dim. It'll be interesting to see how much more of the stars we can see at night from our backyard now that our community and neighbouring communities have been converted to LED's - we could see quite a bit before and even aurora borealis.
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  #71  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 5:13 AM
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'LED street lights are disturbing my sleep'

By Brian Wheeler
BBC News, Washington DC


In towns and cities across the world, the colour of night is changing. Traditional yellow sodium street lights are steadily being replaced by white LED lamps. The new lights use less energy, dramatically cutting carbon emissions and saving money. But not everybody is happy.
"When the leaves left the trees and I tried to sleep, I turned to one side and the light's shining right in my eyes."
Like most of us, Karen Snyder had never really paid much attention to street lights. But that all changed last year when the city council began installing LED lights outside her home in a quiet corner of Washington DC.
In addition to the light shining into her bedroom, the 63-year-old teacher's guest room, where she watches TV, is now bathed in something akin to strong moonlight.
"It's like there's a ray coming in. Like a blue ray. Right directly on to the couch. If you are sitting down, the moon would be above the house and you'd get the beautiful feel of the moon. This is shining right in your eyes so it's pretty different than a moon. Moons don't go this low into the windows."

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38526254
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  #72  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 5:31 AM
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There are amazing inventions these days called curtains and blinds.

Story about nothing.
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  #73  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 5:35 AM
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Originally Posted by Metro-One View Post
There are amazing inventions these days called curtains and blinds.

Story about nothing.
Exactly what I thought.
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  #74  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 9:43 PM
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Originally Posted by SpongeG View Post
Moons don't go this low into the windows.
I think we should let the moons speak for themselves tbqh #sitdown #checkurprivilege
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  #75  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 10:40 PM
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I think influential folks in St. John's are on this site. Since this thread, it's become a bit of a media issue here (I'm not being cryptic because I work for the media or anything, I am NOT involved at all).

The pilot project started forever ago is now coming to an end and the decision on whether to switch to LED lights will be made soon.
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  #76  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2017, 11:12 PM
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Those are probably poorly designed lights then, because one of the major benefits of LED lights is that, by nature, they are directional and supply far less light pollution.
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  #77  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2017, 2:45 AM
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Originally Posted by middeljohn View Post
The only way LED fixtures used for roadway can illuminate the sky is by reflecting off the ground, which in the case of pavement is typically less than 1%, usually closer to 0.1%.
While this is true (or so) for fresh asphalt, the percentage of reflected light can exceed 10% as it ages. For concrete, it's more like 50% and in the wintertime, when the ground is covered in snow, it can reach as much as 90%.
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  #78  
Old Posted Mar 15, 2017, 3:48 AM
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What the new LED heads look like across our street and a night time shot, not harsh white - taken with my potato so the night shot isn't great. The light actually projects more downward than the picture shows, color is fairly accurate though, our front yard is way darker now than when it was a sodium fixture out front, conversion was done this past week.

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  #79  
Old Posted Mar 16, 2017, 8:17 PM
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LED's are not all rainbows and unicorns, there are some downsides too. But I am getting used to them despite some other issues I have with them.

http://www.businessinsider.com/citie...012-and-2015-1
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  #80  
Old Posted Mar 25, 2017, 1:18 AM
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Originally Posted by lubicon View Post
LED's are not all rainbows and unicorns, there are some downsides too. But I am getting used to them despite some other issues I have with them.

http://www.businessinsider.com/citie...012-and-2015-1
I wonder how many people were 'affected' when the big conversion from mercury vapour to sodium vapour street lighting in the late 70's/early 80's. I do recall quite a negative outcry when sodium lighting was being introduced.
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