Wow, is he really going to touch on the oh so delicate and already well debated issued of switching street lighting off?
Yes, I am!
Why, well because it needs to be discussed and needs to be understood enough by everyone, including the general public in order for people to have informed opinions on the subject and not just outraged concerns.
Energy is a dying commodity and that is that. Whilst energy can be made for free via wind and solar, we are many years away from it become our main energy source.
Street lighting currently uses around 640,000 kw per hour of usage... This equates to a bill in the region of £260,000,000 per year. An astronomical amount of money to keep roads lit.
Not only is there the cost of energy that is a concern, we also need to consider the amount of CO2 emissions created. Based on given figures, we would need to plant somewhere in the region of 340 trees for every hour the lights are on to offset the carbon emissions for the entire UK street lighting stock... not the most practical way of reducing our impact and doesn't help with the immediate budget cuts everyone is having to face.
So whats the answer...
Well there is no single correct answer, just a range of choices available.
1. Do nothing
2. Turn off the street lightings
or
3. Dim the street lighting.
I doubt very much that the 'Do nothing' option is much of an option at all.
As for turning off the street lighting, well of course this is an option, but is it the best? Will it provide the best value for money and return on investment and will it keep everyone happy? We know for a fact that there is local uproar if the street lighting has been designated to be switched off (I know, I live in Essex and that is exactly what has happened).
We must also consider that lighting switched off either partially throughout the night or entirely, it must be maintained. This means there will always be a cost associated to the equipment whether it is being used or not (connection charges, maintenance fees, cleaning and electrical testing etc).
I know of stories where local authorities are spending in excess of £5m to roll out the switching off schemes. This will take a huge amount of time to pay back even if the energy saved by switching off is a significant amount. £5m will also go a long way to upgrading the worst performing street lighting to better, more modern requirements.
So why not dim? Why not reduce the output of all the street lighting within an entire borough and reduce it by 75% between 12:00am and 5:30am? The energy savings over just one year could be tremendous and you would still keep the lighting on (even if it is just a bit!)
For further advice on switching off or dimming, check out the ILP's guidance note on the subject here...
http://www.theilp.org.uk/uploads/Save%20Money%20and%20Keep%20the%20Lights%20ON.pdf
I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue, please leave a comment below and we will start to kick off a blog based debate on the situation!
Scott.
In the world of street lighting, it's often the case that we look at removing the old lighting stock and replacing with a lovely shiny new installation.
This works for the majority of lighting schemes were the old equipment looks its age and is nothing more than an accident waiting to happen. Some existing lighting however is too good to just throw away and replace with the new stuff.
Take London for instance, its heritage and appeal comes mainly from how it looks and appears to the outside world. From the stunning new buildings popping up left, right and centre to the majestic and cherished buildings such as Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral.
Now, if either of these building were to start looking slightly down trodden, they would not be ripped down and replaced with a building akin to 'The Gerkin' as this would simply not work. Can the same be true for street lights?
Abs-a-flippin'-loutely...
The image above shows a scheme we have recently completed on Battersea bridge which involved the removal, refurbishment and re-instatement of the entire collection mounted on the bridge. The previous units contained a 70w high pressure sodium lamp, with an extra 11w compact fluorescent lamp to illuminate the top section. We removed this and installed a 45w Cosmopolis lamp to do the entire job.
So, not only does this scheme look great and keeps the essence of the history still, it performs well and saves energy.
For more information on this project and others like it, check out http://www.dwwindsor.com/projects/30
As normal, I would love to hear your thoughts on any of the subjects covered... just leave any comments below.
Scott.
So, we all know that everyone is now looking into greener technologies including solar, wind, tidal etc etc... But are there any feasible ways of doing this both commercially and aesthetically?
Are there designers out there who look at solar panels as means of design rather than nuisance products which just so happen to win over MPs and greenies.
In this blog I want to touch on a couple of things an thy rant shall be done!
1. Can solar panels deliver what we need?
2. Can they look good whilst doing it?
So firstly we need to understand what we may want to use solar panels for... We know we want to make free electricity, but what is the best way to harness this power? Do we use standalone systems with batteries charging throughout the day to power the lighting at night or do we use feed-in tariffs to make some money to offset that electricity used during the night?
Let us not forget that the lowly lighting engineer gets a good deal on his electricity at the moment (well, compared with a standard household anyway!) due to the fact the electricity is used at night. The same reasons that some people use timers on electrical equipment to do their washing a 3am, because the electricity is cheaper!
So to produce it in the day and sell it back to the energy companies when demand is high seems great... we get some money, they get some energy when they need it. We can then use the electricity at night for our lights and know that they will be ok for the whole night as they have been designed.
If we take the charging up batteries idea, we have to consider two things, how much can the batteries actually power and what are they made up of. If we are looking at going green, then is putting a few kilos of lead acid into a box underground may actually not be that green. If we want to power a decent light for say, a foot path, will this run properly from the battery back up?
Lastly, the cost of laying electrical cables to some difficult locations means a standalone product is the only choice. This type of product could illuminate a dark and dodgy looking walkway or footpath with out the massive cost of laying cables and connecting to the grid.
Now, I am not suggesting one over the other at this time, because I don't know best myself truth be told... I do find it interesting that we have two clear options to investigate with pros and cons to each method.
SOLAR PANELS
So can solar panels be well designed?
Below are two options for either a standalone system or a feed in scheme, both of which appear well designed whilst still doing the job correctly.
Lets look at what is available for each of these options..
Standalone system
This picture shows a solar powered standalone system specifically designed to make the solar panels a design feature.
They look fantastic but are they achieving much? In the picture you can also pick out some overhead lighting products to fill in the darker areas I guess.
Feed in vertical panels
Using the same technology as standard solar panels, mounting them vertically along the lighting column allows them to have a smaller footprint on the overall product. These feed electricity back in the day so do not need to provide enough power for a larger lamp as required in this picture below...
A trial scheme currently in place on the M25 where all columns have an array of vertical feed-in solar panels which are not effecting the daytime look of the lighting.
SUMMARY
So, to summarise, we all need to be looking more closely at our energy consumption especially when we are designing schemes.
Are there ways of practically incorporating solar power into a lighting scheme without having an effect on the desired aesthetics of the area? Probably...
Can we use solar panels to create some kind of pay back for green energy? Yes!
Is standalone or pay back the best way of doing it? Depends! What are you trying to do?!?
Lastly, can they look sexy? Of course they can... But it might cost!
Happy energy saving,
Scott.
