Defective LEDs with massively reduced service lives made it out of the factory and into streetlights around the world. If you ever see a purple street light, a failing LED module is the cause.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 43 points 10 months ago (8 children)

none like that around here. they're all blindingly bright af along the main streets and downtown--probably 4-5x as many lamps in each fixture as actually needed, and going up and down hills they shine right in your eyes because they don't have adequate shades keeping the light 'down'.

residential areas still have the much easier-on-the-eyes sodium vapor lights, though--for now.

[–] SARGEx117@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I live near a parking lot for semi trucks to chill after manufacture, before leaving the factory properly. They used to have obnoxious sodium vapor lights that bathed the general area in a dull orange glow at night, maybe a bit brighter than full moonlight.

Then they massively expanded the lot (and bulldozed 5 acres of forest, and at least 100 more of what used to be pollinator habitats, and put in led lighting.

As they stripped it all down and put down flat black asphalt they were all over the news about how environmental they are for using LEDs.

The LEDs have even worse than normal light spill because the lamps are all 45 degree canted, thus flooding the sky as well. Each lamp that used to hold one small boxed sodium lamp now has FIVE PAIRS of 2ftx3ft panels spaced every 20 or so semi spots.

In spring and fall when clouds/fog sit right above the hills, you can see it clear as a beacon from almost 10 miles away. Farther if you're on your own hill.

And in winter, the trees around me are bare enough that I needed to buy blackout curtains.

Every so often I fantasize about ripping them all down with a truck during their holiday shutdowns, and leaving an extremely condescending printout of proper lighting techniques taped to each pole.

load more comments (7 replies)

load more comments (15 replies)