Sodium v LED Street Lights

[MorrisJohn]

Am I alone in loving the traditional sodium glow street lighting and hating bright, cold, white LED lighting? (Don’t even get me started on dazzling modern car headlamps!)

I am fortunate enough to still have a traditional sodium glow lamppost outside the front of my house. Sort of. It just stopped working. Most of the rest of the street has already been changed to new white LED lighting, for energy efficiency.

Anyway, no doubt the sodium glow will now be replaced with a horrible bright white LED.

The sodium provides a soft, pleasant warm light. The white is much more intense, shines through curtains/blinds and makes it seem like daylight is entering a dark room. It’s not good for sleep. Walking in it makes everything appear to daytime-like.

I don’t understand why councils cannot install warm white (or sodium-like orange) energy efficient street lighting to maintain the softness. Perhaps they got a bargain on a million cheap white bulbs from China, as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to weaken the West?

(I did contact my local council about it a while ago, but they don’t care.)

[geoberni]

Many councils have a blanket replacement policy for Sodiums, because LED are so much cheaper to have, not only on running costs but replacement too.
A further problem with them is that they are 'downward' directed which is great for reducing light pollution but when replacing Sodiums the posts are spread out too far, thus there are now dark 'dead spots' whether walking or driving...

We've just had several streets where the posts have been replaced, because of a problem with the old 5mtr posts.
They are being replaced county wide apparently because a couple of them broke and fell, due to a design fault allowing them to rust through internally.
The new ones are 6mtr thus slightly solving the dead spot issue for those particular streets.

Local councils are terrible for responding to enquires, particularly at the moment....

[simmitc]

To answer the question, yes, I think yo must be alone. Everyone to whom I have spoken much prefers the new white light - better colour rendering and better illumination. Downward facing lights are much better, but there may be an issue with LEDs having a narrower beam angle, and it is that which leads to dark areas between posts. Most importantly, LEDs greatly reduce the amount of energy needed to run them, and so are a major contribution to reducing pollution and so helping the environment on which we all depend. That's street lighting, headlights are a different subject altogether.

[myoldjalopy]

Personally, I prefer gas lighting!

[MorrisJohn]

To answer the question, yes, I think yo must be alone.

Well, my wife does insist I’m “unique” and belong in another era

Going off topic in an off topic thread, there’s a cracking gaslit pub in Beverley. Nellies. Well worth a visit.

[Sleeper]

Sorry John , but you're not unique , most of the posters on this forum are still in the dark ages ( myself included ).

John ;-)

[MorrisJohn]

Shhhh…don’t want my wife to find out I’m replaceable

[Bowie69]

Not alone, for sure, I prefer the sodium lights over LED from a driving perspective.

I live in a rural area, but do thread through street lit villages and approach roads where they are street-lit. Many of these lanes are not that wide, and the tendency to cut corners is always there, from myself included.

With the old sodium lights, you could tell if a car was coming because the more white light of the headlamps showed up on the surrounding hedges etc. However, with LED, all the light is the same, and you no longer have that early warning, meaning you have to slow down more than you used to need to do.

Irritating.

As an explanation as to why the LED street lamps are so white, 'warm' LEDs are very much more expensive to make, and often resort to using phosphor, creating an LED-fluorescent lamp, which is not quite as power-saving as it could be, plus the phosphor wears out, much like the fluorescent tubes.... So the best value LED lamps for the foreseeable will have this 'cool' colouration, which is unfortunate, as it is not the best for seeing things, nor for depth perception.

If it were me, I'd want full sodium orange if possible

[MorrisJohn]

Not alone, for sure, I prefer the sodium lights over LED from a driving perspective...

If it were me, I'd want full sodium orange if possible

Good point about night driving, I’ve noticed the same thing.

Pleased to know I’m not alone

[dp]

I like sodium lights when they first come on and are warming up since they are red. Once they go orange they don't look so nice to me. Plus less energy with LED

[paul 300358]

The LED light outside our house now points upwards!! This is actually an improvement as when it pointed towards the floor it constantly flashed on and off.

[Mick Lynch]

This bloke would have something to say about this thread…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/ae-matthe ... 58/zbq8kmn

From 1958

[myoldjalopy]

What a hero!

[nutsandbolts]

I prefer sodium lights but saving energy is important, one advantage sodium have over LED is in fog, as with the old yellow fog lights they did seem to penetrate the fog better than white, or am I just looking through (xx rose xx) sodium tinted glasses?

[Wearytraveller]

A good way of saving energy would be do away with many streetlights- I've never found them of any benefit while driving and have lived in two villages without them and the assault/murder rate was no higher than elsewhere, plus a part of a city which had very, very few, and never felt in any danger. Maybe down the docks and rough parts it's different.

I can't stand LEDs, like many people the blue light they emit (even the 3000K 'warm white' versions) inteferes with sleep, we don't go near them and stay with incandescants despite our lighting being mostly 12v solar and battery, topped up by paraffin and candles. Additionally many (especially cheaper) domestic 240v led bulbs flicker at different and often variable rates to the 50hz which after decades seems not to be doing our minds or bodies any damage over time. Doubt there will be any long term eye/brain/immune system damage from living under light flickering at hitherto unexperienced frequencies but I'd rather not be a guinea pig.

I did fit an LED headlamp bulb in an early geni-mag BSA Bantam, which was the only reliable way to ride it flat out (30 uphill, 40 downhill) at night, without ending up in the scenery!