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PostPosted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:29 pm 
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The idea of reflecting or refracting LED light is a bit wasteful and pointless in my mind. The whole reason why lanterns of the past featured reflectors and refractors was because lamps produced light in all directions. You don't want to waste upward light, so you reflect it down. You also want to avoid pools of light, so you use reflectors, refractors or a combination of both to reduce light in certain directions and concentrate it in other directions.

Many new LED products use refractors anyway, such as the Stela, Luma, Speedstar, Iridium2 and Axia, it's just that they are small butterfly-like lenses individual to each LED. CU Phosco products like the P850 along with earlier Urbis products just angle flat LEDs to direct the beams of light.

LEDs are glarry to look at because they are very pinpoint sources of light. Even with multiple LEDs together glare is still an issue, but then again it is an issue with high intensity discharge lamps too. Around phosco152's house, I've experienced eye pain staring into LEDs, but I've also experienced the same pain staring into SON and metal halide lamps. And ultimately, from my own observations I would say LED tends to be less glarry and produce a better spread of light than high intensity discharge sources. When I see the Lumas on the motorways near me at night, to be brutally honest they are pretty damn good and preferable to HID alternatives. Only low intensity discharge sources like SOX and fluorescent can be less glarry as light sources.

Of course, if you do want to mitigate glare with LEDs, take a look at the typical Toblerone-shaped Philips Fortimo system. Yes, it may require reflectors, but in terms of shape and light output it is much like CFL.


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:45 am 
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I have been sent the following link from one of the Dutch enthusiasts showing the versatility of LED lighting at a Belgium football stadium.

Clicky

It really does show how the LED light source is more flexible than traditional discharge lighting. Another example was of course the LEDs used for visual effects in the stadium of the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics - although the main stadium lighting was HID.


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:06 pm 
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This is fascinating:

Quote:
THE TECEO LIGHTS STRIJP-S, AN URBAN LABORATORY FOR PUBLIC LIGHTING OF THE FUTURE

Strijp-S is a former industrial site that has been converted into a modern day campus by the City of Eindhoven. This 66 acre complex combines residential, working, leisure and cultural facilities with the vocation of being a creative breeding ground for innovative people.

Through the Light-S programme, the city of Eindhoven is applying the latest innovations in lighting and communication to implement sustainable smart lighting systems that create optimal experiences for the general public. The street lighting in Strijp-S is not only functional - to improve safety and visibility - but also aesthetic and interactive to reflect the living nature of the public space.

With sustainability, colour and interactivity as essential criteria for Light-S, the managers of this programme opted for LED technology. LED luminaires can vary in intensity, colour and brightness, ideal for innovative and intelligent light solutions and particularly when a focus on sustainability demands a reduction in the use of energy and light pollution.

The Teceo by Schréder was the ideal tool for this project thanks to its high performance which provides maximised savings in energy and maintenance costs.
Each Teceo luminaire can be controlled individually and is custom fitted with RGB, warm white and cool white LEDs. The colours are mixed to create different ambiances. For example, blue and green LEDs are blended in with the white to provide the residents with a bright light for an energetic vibe in the mornings while warmer colours are mixed with the white in the evening to enhance sunset. They can also be dynamically mixed for more festive occasions; when the Italian food van pays its weekly visit to the site, the Teceo luminaires can be lit in different colours to create a Mediterranean atmosphere.  
They can even be adapted to the weather, for example, flashing red to warn residents of approaching storms. The system is connected to the fiber optic infrastructure and centrally controlled. It is connected to a local weather station to react on local conditions.
They can also be remotely adjusted using wireless technology. By simply downloading an app on their smartphone, residents will be able to change the colours for a couple of hours each night. People sitting on restaurant terraces will be able to adjust the luminaires around the restaurants to provide a particular ambiance for that area.

"Residents are the real customers of light, and we tend to forget that", explains Serge van den Berg of the energy sustainability firm HetEnergieBureau, in charge of the lighting installation. "A sustainable environment is one that's not just energy-efficient but also one where people enjoy being."

“The newly transformed Strijp-S site is the home of a unique and continuously developing approach to public lighting, a live laboratory. It will create experiences that reflect what is happening in the environment and respond interactively with the residents. It provides a lighting system that is both sustainable and fun.” comments Yves Borlez, Research & Technology Director for the Schréder Group. “This concept has always been at the heart of our research and development:  efficient lighting while ensuring an ambiance that matches the needs of the place to be lit at that exact time. Schréder is delighted to be a partner of this project which will build the future of public lighting”.


Yes, colour changing street lighting. This I would like to see. I can imagine it would lead to interesting aesthetics of urban areas, and I can also imagine it could open up a lot of possibilities when it comes to safety.


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 8:44 pm 
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I obviously e-mailled the wrong company with this idea!

I e-mailled WRTL Philips a while back suggesting Colour-Changing options for their Luma range.

My idea was that councils could choose colour temperatures such as Warm or Cool White.  The colour of SOX or SON or Yellow (as in fog lights)

Or, for seasides such as Blackpool they could have a Rainbow option that would allow any RGB colour to be selected or various colours to be cycled through - Also for use at Christmas.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 7:22 pm 
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A trip into Southampton city centre revealed significant faults with a popular LED lantern on the market.

Above Bar Street received lantern swaps in 2012. WRTL Stela Wide lanterns were fitted post-top at 10m height to light the road, and WRTL Stela Long lanterns were fitted side entry at 6m height, in a father-and-son configuration. All of the Stela Wides are working perfectly fine. However, about two-thirds to three-quarters of the Stela Longs have developed a fault of some kind, ranging from one LED in the array being dim or having failed, to a sizeable number of the LEDs in the array having failed.

Clearly there is some kind of design fault that is affecting the Stela Long but not the Stela Wide. Stela Squares in the city seem perfectly fine too. I wonder if it could be a heat dissipation issue. After all, why would larger sized Stelas be fine whilst the smaller and narrower Stelas are failing rapidly?

With failures like this, I feel sorry for the Hounslow PFI which has installed Stela Longs in huge numbers.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 8:41 pm 
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I have the same issue with my Stela long in my collection.


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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 9:51 pm 
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LED lanterns powered by human footfall in Canary Wharf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4qjGTSArRk

(Retweeted by @UKASTLE}


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PostPosted: Wed May 27, 2015 6:01 pm 
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Going back to the article/video posted a year ago - I actually think that full spectrum interior lighting, especially those with a blue spike is a bad idea too. And that includes the monitor I'm using now, and any phones/devices with backlit colour screens. I would seriously consider phones that have monochrome LCD or e-ink/e-paper displays if they were available, but aside from the Yotaphone there just isn't much here, so we're all forced to stare at LEDs whenever we use our phones or PCs.

For the same reason I'm against a ban on halogen bulbs, the last stalwart of incandescent technology, as those are the last affordable, low-output domestic lighting that aren't full spectrum.

In terms of exterior/high-output lighting, there is an alternative to LEDs that are not full spectrum but deliver similar energy/maintenance savings, and that is induction lighting, but the lanterns and the support aren't there so very few councils will ever know about them.


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 8:23 pm 
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In my view, the Axia is one of the worst LED lanterns I have seen. Within 2 years of being installed in and around Wigan, many examples have dead diodes dotted all over. The higher wattage Axias seem to be the main culprits of the diode deaths, so I wonder if this has been noticed elsewhere?


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 Post subject: LED Installations
PostPosted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:17 pm 
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I've noticed with recent LED installations in East Kilbride (south of Glasgow) that main roads have been changed to LED but when the roads come to roundabouts that they remain as the old style lanterns, is this a safety issues as roundabouts need to be brighter?? I thought the whole point of LED lights is that the light is brighter and energy efficient.

Any thoughts?

Stu


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