Damned Floodlights

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Or use a simple baffle plate. Does seem strange for folk to not get this. I remember somebody having an accident with a car when crossing a road near a floodlight on the side of a house as the dazzle meant he did not see the cyclist at all, and the cyclist was distracted by the light. I'm aft raid folk do not think things through very much. Brian

WIth you all the way. Two comments:

(1) Many (most?) "people" doing the aiming are professional electricians, engaged to do the work. Very, very obviously, manufacturers' instructions and recommendations do not mention annoying the neighbours, or indeed causing a hazard.

(2) Why the F**K are these things so powerful?!?! There is absolutely no need to try and recreate daylight: at night, you need only 100 watts at most, to provide useful light in the back yard, or illumination on the front drive, or to deter bad people. It seems that most people think that the more powerful the floodlight, the more intimidation it will deliver. Ignorant sods :-(

High time for legislation on this matter.

John

Or in the case of a local farm 3/4 mile away and nearly 300' lower have their (high pressure sodium) floods aimed such that there is enough light with us to read by and cast shadows!

Quite. We are lucky to have pretty dark skies, on a clear night and not even fully dark adapted eyes the Milky Way is a glorious band across the sky. But you have to have your back to that farms floods or get a bit of building between you and them.

LED flood lights are an awful design with a "beam" pretty much a hemisphere and no reflector/hood to give those who want to restrict where the light goes a chance to do so. Driving at night can now be hazardous due to the glare/dazzle and confusing as the colour temperature matches that of some headlights, so is that a car coming the other way or not?

And it's not just cheap domestic luminaires that squirt the light out sideways. GlaxoSmithKline at Barnard Castle have installed new LED lamp standards for their carpark. These produce distracting glare and highlights when approaching Barney along the B6278 at about 3 miles and 400' *above* the level of the carpark.

Yep, and all a bright does is make the shadows darker and easier for bad people to hide in.

Agreed, Dark Skies For All. Legislate that no luminare intended for external use, be that a lamp post, flood light or decorative fitting or WHY can emit any light above 30 degrees below a horizontal plane passing through the light source.

Building flood lights? I question the need to routinely flood light a building in the first place. *IF* that can be justfied, legislate that no light is emitted from the fitting below 60 degrees above the horizontal plane through the light source and other measures are in place to restrict the light to the structure.

What a stupid proposed law.

fitting

plane

Stupid comment.

Present reasoned counter point(s).

Impossible to enforce. Guaranteed solution is to blind everyone at birth.

Very well, I thought they would be obvious.

The problem is not light above 30 degrees down, it's substantial amounts of light well above horizontal. So your chosen angle is way off, and would crimialise a great range of useful fittings. It would also require a much greater number of fittings to cover a give area, another waste of money.

All lights produce at least some light out at unintended angles, through eg vent holes, prism effects, reflection off the fitting etc. Requiring them all to give zero at these angles could only be achieved by using vanta black, an expensive and pointless process, and by blocking vents, requiring larger more costly fittings. Money wasted all round.

And some lights emit all over the place uncontrolled, but are not a problem in any way. Festive LED decorations are a good example. Outlawing them is senseless.

The proposal clearly was not thought through.

NT

Theatre lights don't, but they do cost a bit more than your average domestic fitting

That's exactly why there is a Parliament: a proposal is made, and then it's debated, calmly and rationally, from both sides, by expertly informed MPs. Then Parliament makes up its mind, and the majority passes the law.

You can be forgiven for forgetting these basic principles, and simply answering as you did in your first post: for the last 2-3 years, you haven't had a very good example of debate, coming from Down There by the Thames.

John

of course they do. Light bounces off the filter frame & some gets out the rear vents. They also aren't suited to exterior lighting use.

NT

another optimist. Maybe it happens on a good day. IRL MPs are often not as well informed as would be a good thing.

Law is too often made by people with some but not enough knowledge. Part P anyone? HIPs? Compulsory overpriced incompatible CFL fittings? Or indeed much of modern BR.

NT

I used to have a fairly high powered one on the front of my garage (now replaced with an LED one) - partly because we need good lighting from the garage (at the back of the back garden), right along the garden and along the side of the house, to allow for getting to and from the garage without tripping over various low visibility hazards. Mainly though, because it can be switched to permanently on and used as a work light for work in front of the garage (either on one of our cars or when cutting materials for DIY) and due to the door positions, there isn't a suitable position for two separate lights, so one has to serve both purposes.

That would leave the whole side of my house, including the back door in darkness! I need less than 9° from the horizontal to do that.

Light is however blocked from reaching the front by the high, wooden gates that are only inches lower than the light fitting.

SteveW

Some are specifically designed for outdoor use.

Cracking road (in the day light & summer!)

Used to regularly head up to around Allendale Town for boozy weekend dos, & I hope I'll never forget blasting to & from in a company V6 petrol estate - that used to sing at full chat when all the cams etc came in :-) invariably just me on the road ...

/Reminisce mode :-)