OT - light "spillage" from proposed nearby football floodlights

[Neddie Seagoon]

Folks,

I live in a sheltered housing development directly adjacent to the village's football club. So far, we've got along just fine with the club and its players and we'd like that to continue. However, the club has submitted an application to install floodlights which is giving us cause for concern...

The Environmental Health Officer's report on the proposal has this to say:

The proposal is for 4 18m high poles with luminaires. I have not had experience with the luminaires proposed for this development they are the non horizontal non asymmetrical throw types relying on lenses and baffles to direct light to where it needs to be. They are at 18m to ensure that the light can be directed downwards enough to illuminate the pitch and minimise overspill. The lighting levels showing the horizontal Lux levels and vertical Lux levels demonstrate that the lighting can provide lighting levels of, Between 84 Lux and 312 Lux on field with averages being around the

200 Lux mark (Horizontal Levels), ? Horizontal over spill of around 1Lux at the nearest residential accommodation, ? Vertical overspill at 1.5m of 1Lux to 1.7 Lux on the vertical surface for the nearest residential building (this would equate to ground floor window level. These levels are well within the Current ILP Guidance Notes for Light Pollution. ? Quite frankly, we don't understand what these "spill" figures mean in day-to-day terms. Are they equivalent to a full moon? A car headlight? A room light?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks, Peter

[misterroy]

[mike]

Can't help with the technicalities but, for what it's worth, our previous house backed on to a rugby pitch and the floodlights were never a problem. I don't recall even being aware they were switched on with the upstairs curtains drawn.

These would've been quite old floodlights and I doubt that anyone thought much about light pollution when they were installed.

[fred]

perhaps you could ask around to discover where similar systems are in opera tion and go see for yourself.

[damduck-egg]

Are these Floodlights to illuminate the pitch or floodlights in general? If it is the Pitch then how often would they be on for, if it is only a couple of times a week in the season for duration of practice sessions and a game or two then may be it might be just something to live with. Sports facilities have hidden benefits like giving some youngsters something to do instead of vandlising the area .

G.Harman

[DerbyBorn]

mike wrote in news: [e-mail]:

When I did stage lighting I was very careful not to all allow scatter. We had barn-door-shutters on many lights to carefully shape the beam. Some installations now just seem to try to "light up the air". Bulkhead type fittings in large car-parks are the worse. 50% of the light merely escaping upwards.

[bert]

In message , Neddie Seagoon writes

Well 1 lux is 1 lumen per sq meter so it sound pretty low to me. The guidance notes are in an acrobat file and can be found here

[Dave Liquorice]

That is how I would read it as well.

That would be additional and dependant on those objects, light coloured or dark?

As for what 1 lux is, the ambient light in this room is 40 to 50 lux according to the light sensor in my tablet with it "looking" at the white ceiling. The small galley kitchen with white walls/ceiling lit with a bare 5' 58 W flourecent is 150 ish lux when shaded from the lamp. Phone doesn't have a light sensor so can't collaborate the tablets reading.

[alan_m]

And I presume they would only be on in the early evening for a match or training.

The poles may not be an attractive feature to the skyline.

[Sam Plusnet]

UKip get everywhere!

Can we stick to DIY please?

[PeterC]

My outside bulkheads have aluminium foil between glass and cage to 'shape' the spread. One, with a 3.5W LED illuminates everything I need to see but doesn't dazzle the neighbours. The other has a 60W GLS but is on for ~10 min/year, so not worth changing.

[fred]

In a word no. I wondered if it was because he had written it and so wanted to sing it but I see he was the main songwriter for the band so that doesn't fit. He does have a really distinctive voice though and it worked well for that song.

[DerbyBorn]

Vir Campestris wrote in news:c9CdnS- [e-mail]:

Golf Driving Ranges are the worse. They tend to use circular lamps aimed horizontally. 50% of the light is stray.

[Huge]

And what's worse the driving range near(-ish) my house never seem to turn theirs off. Fortunately the lamps face away from us, but the energy waste must be enormous.