Street Lightings

Scientific research to enhance quality of Street Lighting in Spain

By Admin

Today light pollution and energy consumption are among the main concerns of municipalities in the field of lighting. The rhythm of the world forces us to lengthen the hours of light with artificial lighting.

However, new technologies allow us to reduce the impact of lighting on the environment. For this reason, it is necessary to bring together leading experts in the industry to find solutions that improve the quality of street lighting and reduce pollution and energy consumption.

In Spain a group of scientists has sought solutions to this problem in a recent research. The initiative responds to the failure of the Spanish government's attempts to improve energy savings and efficiency. The study has been done to analyze the different devices which influence energy consumption with the intention of improve understanding their behavior and performance. The devices investigated were lamps, street lamp globes, ballasts, dimmable lighting systems and control systems.

In conclusions this investigation has shown some aspects that they should be incorporated in the Spanish Standards to better the quality of street lighting. According to the paper, Spanish normative does not contemplate several things, such as the minimum distance between luminaries and trees or the minimum distance between luminaries and fire hydrants.

In relation to lamps, study says that white lights reduce illuminate level. Regarding ballasts, has been corroborated that electronic ballasts consume less energy than electromagnetic ones.

Concerning light pollution, scientists thinks that Spain should be more rigorous. If Spanish regulation were stricter regarding light pollution, street lighting systems would improve in quality. Also scientists highlight that the Spanish normative should encourage the use of renewable energies for street lighting.

The society is increasingly aware of the reduction of light pollution and the energy consumption of street lighting. But We need more researches to solve the problem.

“The End of Night”, an essay about bad practices on street lighting

When we were children we went out on the balcony at night or looked out the window and saw more stars than now. This is because now our cities are more and more enlightened.

This is positive, in view of that the street lighting increases the security of the citizens. But, It’s a bad thing to abuse of that. To avoid this the councils should work with lighting experts to better plan public lighting in their cities.

Today, the industry has designed lighting products with a lower impact on the environment and intelligent systems that are able to manage the illumination of cities more efficiently.

We do not should illuminate the streets when there are not vehicle or pedestrian there. It is more efficient to turn on the light when the streetlight detects the presence of a pedestrian or a vehicle in a dark zone.

One of the reference book about light pollution of the cities is "The End of Night", written by Paul Bogard.

In this book warns of the dangers and the threatens of the excess of illumination at the cities, especially the overlight in the American cities.

According to the author, these threats can be fatal for human health such as low quality of sleep or cancer.

In the book Bogard travels to places on Earth where you can look the beauty of the sky at night.

The author encourages us to rethink the current illumination of our cities to recover what we are losing.

Street lighting has great benefits, but when we abuse of these artificial lighting systems we risk denaturalizing ourselves.

Let’s improve our street lighting systems and We will enjoy natural spaces more and We will have a better quality of life.

Street Lighting Awards 2017

Excellence deserves public recognition. Normally, the job well done always receives a prize. Any human activity that touches perfection usually gains recognition. Also Street lighting systems.

In May, they were presented as every year in London Light Design Awards. They are surely the most important awards in the world in lighting design. Projects from 15 countries, including Iran, Kenya, Finland, Canada, United States, France, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Spain and Chile.

More than 700 designers, architects attended an event that has already consolidated as one of the highlights of the lighting sector in general and street lighting in particular. The jury in charge of deciding the winners was composed of more than 10 experts in the field of design, architecture and lighting.

The awards are endorsed and sponsored by the best lighting brands like OSRAM, LUTRON, LUMEN PULSE, IGUZZINI, among others.

The best street lighting was for the lighting of Gasholder Park in London's King's Cross in the category Community and Public Realm Project of the Year.

Gasholder Park is a new public pocket park and event space in King’s Cross, London. It takes the form of landscaped lawn, ringed by a mirror-polished stainless steel canopy set within a historic cast-iron gasholder structure. Its circular shape is based on a solar eclipse.

Each of canopy uprights are uplit with cool white light on the inside using a very narrow beam that enforces the architectural rhythm. This light reaches the interior of the canopy and is reflected back onto the path, creating a glowing “corona effect” that hightlights the circular shape and performs a sense of enclosure.

The search of perfection should be the main motivation of our lives and the awards like the Lighting Awards the compass that tells us that we are going in the right direction.

Future trends in street lighting

The new technology on to existing lighting columns solves an illuminance requirement, but does not consider the night-time identity and character of a city and how these could be manifested through future technologies. In many ways current street lighting trends are completely disconnected and alien to cities.

Let’s see now the role that street lighting can play in the future.

Reconnect with people

While car accidents have declined in recent years, the perception of safety on the streets has remained the same as in the last 25 years.

Despite the increased spending on street lighting, people still feel insecure.

To solve this situation, leading experts say that lighting should become more oriented to the needs, experiences and flows of the people using the streetscape.

According to these experts, elements that need to be explored are:

• Emphasis on quality lighting and space not quantity and planar luminance.

• Dynamic systems changing with pedestrian flows. GPS smartphones could allow intelligent lighting to register an approaching pedestrian, even their lighting preference.

• Intelligent systems that self-monitor incidental illuminance from retail and office spaces and decide if additional light is required.

• Urban lighting that can be scene set as with an interior space, to connect with pedestrian needs and create a lighting impression unified with brightness of the night sky.

• Lighting which encourages interaction, cycling and walking in a 24-hour society.

Reconnect with the identity of the city

Cities have an identity, but this character has decreased with standardisation. To find out this circumstance, experts suggest street lighting should be designed to connect with the historical and cultural identity of the area.

Relevant old and new architecture should be illuminated to create vertical luminance and visual interest, while adding to the perceived brightness of the streetscape or creating destinations and focal points.

Reconnect the city with the sky

Urgently, cities need reducing street lighting at night with more efficient systems that recover sky glow and decrease wasted light.

In the next years street light should be more connected with the cities and all the items of this.

The advantages of led street lighting

There are a number of benefits to street lighting. Everybody likes a street with artificial light at night. Led street lighting improves the advantages of street lighting. I have short-listed 5 top advantages of the brighter cities with led lights.

I have short-listed 5 top advantages of the brighter cities with led lights.

1.- Decrease crime. The main benefit is security. Artificial lighting is a good thing for citizens that need to walk along the street at night. It reduces the opportunities for violence. Recent studies in Los Angeles have shown that led street lighting lowers crime rates because traditional street lighting is darker than led street lighting.

2.- Promote safe mobility. Led street lighting also improves safety for drives, riders and pedestrians. Driving outside of daylight hours is more dangerous. According to a recent study, the hours of 7 pm and 8 am account for 40% of fatal and serious injuries to the car drivers.

3.- No Warm Up Necessary. Incandescent or fluorescent lighting can take too long to warm up before even turning on. Instead of this, LED lighting thrives in cold weather. By installing LED street lights, there is no more waiting around for the bulbs to warm up.

4.- Save money. Led street lighting is cheaper than traditional street lighting and It also helps the environment. For this reason, many cities have turned to Led Lighting to save their city money. Over the last years costs of LED street lighting systems have decreased 50%.

5.- Long Lifespan. Despite of the cost of LED street Lights could be more expensive than traditional street lights, led bulbs have a longer duration than the others bulbs. Costs of maintenance are reduced with the led street lighting systems.

Led Street lighting upgrades the benefits to traditional street lighting and these advantages enable more secure and sustainable cities. You could contact ATP Iluminación for your street lighting projects.