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Defective LEDs with massively reduced service lives made it out of the factory and into streetlights around the world. If you ever see a purple street light, a failing LED module is the cause.
none like that around here. they're all blindingly bright af along the main streets and downtown--probably 4-5x as many lamps in each fixture as actually needed, and going up and down hills they shine right in your eyes because they don't have adequate shades keeping the light 'down'.
residential areas still have the much easier-on-the-eyes sodium vapor lights, though--for now.
I know a guy that very was vocal against street lights in the 90's.
He was/is an amateur astronomer that modified his rooftop to be an actual telescope and the street lamps were angled in a certain way that like 40% of the light produced by them was shinning to the sky, making his observations harder to perform.
He went to my school to warn about light pollution and also teach us about planets and all that good stuff.
I think he became frustrated and quitted because last time I saw anything about him he was all about rescuing dogs from the street. :/
I live near a parking lot for semi trucks to chill after manufacture, before leaving the factory properly. They used to have obnoxious sodium vapor lights that bathed the general area in a dull orange glow at night, maybe a bit brighter than full moonlight.
Then they massively expanded the lot (and bulldozed 5 acres of forest, and at least 100 more of what used to be pollinator habitats, and put in led lighting.
As they stripped it all down and put down flat black asphalt they were all over the news about how environmental they are for using LEDs.
The LEDs have even worse than normal light spill because the lamps are all 45 degree canted, thus flooding the sky as well. Each lamp that used to hold one small boxed sodium lamp now has FIVE PAIRS of 2ftx3ft panels spaced every 20 or so semi spots.
In spring and fall when clouds/fog sit right above the hills, you can see it clear as a beacon from almost 10 miles away. Farther if you're on your own hill.
And in winter, the trees around me are bare enough that I needed to buy blackout curtains.
Every so often I fantasize about ripping them all down with a truck during their holiday shutdowns, and leaving an extremely condescending printout of proper lighting techniques taped to each pole.
Where I live all street lights used to be low pressure sodium (very monochromatic yellow!) Due to a nearby observatory. Now to hell with everything! It's LED lights everywhere. They're strong and not diffused so all the light comes from a small area meaning instant after image... (Sigh)
Even worse, people now put LED lights on their outdoor house fixtures and all kinds of office buildings pointing UP. Goodbye night sky...
residential areas still have the much easier-on-the-eyes sodium vapor lights, though--for now.
Monochromatic isn't easier on eyes.
I could definitely be under the wrong impression here, but aren't LEDs monochromatic also?
I think they're generally dichromatic (is that the word?). White LEDs are blue LEDs + a yellow florescent coating.
LEDs somehow have CRI 0.9, so they are unlikely to be just dichromatic. For comparasion monochromatic light has CRI 0.
LEDs somehow have CRI 0.9, so they are unlikely to be just dichromatic. For comparasion monochromatic light has CRI 0.
We've still got a few of those around here. Most have been reported and replaced. But for a time, we had a whole stretch of freeway that was lit up purple. It as sweet
Same thing in my area, at one point a whole half mile of streetlights near my house was purple. It was cyberpunk as hell and I loved it.
Me too. I didn’t mind it and assumed it was intentional. A bit out of the ordinary, but different can be good.
I thought the coating failed to adhere, how would a module affect the colour output?
Is the coating not considered part of the module? Maybe module was the wrong word.
I’ve never heard the term used like that before. It’s leds and a driver for them, the only thing I would call a module would be the driver, but modules usually go into large complex machines. Not 2 part devices. The driver would have different modules on it potentially.
Egg on my face, oops!
Yeah it was just a weird term, it’s not inherently wrong… if the lights were multicolored a failed module could make it be different colours, but these are one color and one color temperature. So there’s no way for it to put out different colours.