 | Streetlighting pulls out of the space race
 back
| 14 Oct 2008
While the UK's outdated street lighting stock continues to be replaced, a large number of city, county and borough councils are in the middle of three to five year projects. The larger projects are usually PFI financed, with a 25 year maintenance service entailed; smaller ones may well be funded within the authority, writes Pat Bechar of Indal WRTL.
Looking back over this period, the authorities have become more conscious of the impact of light pollution, white light, sustainability and, just recently, are looking at smaller and more discreet replacements for the older 'battleship' designs.
One place where the difference will hopefully be noticed is from space. A few years ago, the light spill from the UK's outdated lighting stock was some of the worst in the world, and had prompted the Campaign for Dark Skies movement to try to reduce the pollution.
Secured by light
There have also been conflicting pressures on light/no light as well. The ILE in its 2003 Street Lighting - Protecting a Vital National Asset report estimated that for every £1 spent on lighting, there was a £4 reduction in street crime and accidents. Home Office studies in Dudley and Stoke showed that, where more effective street lighting was introduced, overall crime dropped by 41 per cent (Dudley) and personal crime by 50 per cent (Dudley).
The appreciation of the importance of lamp colour for security means councils are insisting at the very least on high end SON-T lamps (e.g. Comfort) with a light spectrum as close as possible to daylight, whilst many are specifying 'white' compact luminaire sources for sub-150W applications.
Glaringly less obvious
Light pollution and glare control has also moved on with EN13201-2:2003. Its classification of glare restrictions from G1 to G6 has rigorously defined the allowable luminous intensity limits above the horizontal (90º) as well as stating the intensity at 90º, 80º and 70º.
This has seen a number of street lanterns with optics specifically designed to meet the glare restrictions, such as WRTL's Libra which was specially developed for 'white' compact sources and to meet the G3 glare classification for general residential streets.
Care for the environment has also progressed beyond light pollution to embrace energy saving and recycling of all components, with disposal of electronics to meet WEEE requirements.
Control up North
A major PFI project during the Campaign for Dark Skies years was that of Newcastle and North Tyneside, starting in 2005. This aimed to replace around 80% of the areas' streetlighting in five years. In addition, there were 17,000 new lighting columns for areas which had none, including 30km of unlit back lanes.
Based on the advanced optics of WRTL's Arc street lantern, the excellent distribution control also allowed some flexibility in being 'tweaked' to meet the optimum combination of height and spacing which met the PFI's specifications within budget. Arc also features a recyclable aluminium body and electronics. The new scheme showed impressive results as in this residential street in Newcastle and won a Campaign for Dark Skies award, the first PFI project to do so.
Discreet little number
As the introduction of the innovative CosmoPolis lamp started gaining ground in 2007, so authorities started to consider it for street lighting. WRTL's 2-Tone was the first street lantern specifically designed to take full advantage of the CosmoPolis size and its lighting characteristics, with optical performance options to meet the strictest glare controls and an extremely compact body which set new design standards.
The first PFI scheme to specifically use 2-Tone has been a primarily residential street scheme in Redcar and Cleveland in 2008.
The 2-Tone continues the environmental responsibility theme, with its complete recyclability, and its glare control and very discrete appearance also enhance the local street environment. It is definitely on the development time line of improved light pollution control for enhanced energy efficiency, 'white' light for better colour rendition and security perception and also 'disappears' discreetly into the streetscape background, as opposed to making a design statement.
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