Anger In Carlisle Over LEDs: Anybody walking night won’t be able to see a thing

Carlisle Streets are being plunged into darkness because of new lighting, according to a city councillor. He has drawn attention to the fact the lights project their beam downwards, which he has claimed makes the area between them dark. He said: “All we have got now is less light between each light station, there is nothing in between.”

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The issue seems to have split local residents with many of them asking for the old sodium lights back. If you look at the photo that appears in the article, the uniformity looks quite good. Of course, you can’t really tell from a photo and I’d be very interested to hear from a lighting professional who lives in the area.

Many towns replace their street lights without replacing and/or moving the columns. This can result in space-to-mount ratios that work for the old optics, but not the new LEDs. When this happens, uniformity is a big issue. I experience that in the town where I live in the Netherlands. The road looks so patchy and many residents complained. This sounds as though it is the case here because they are complaining about the fact that there is a lot of dark space between luminaires. So perhaps the wrong optic was chosen?

Hopefully, they will be able to solve the issue to the satisfaction of the residents and enjoy the benefits of switching to more energy efficient lighting.

By Julie Allen