Street Light & Air Conditioner

In article ,
beavith wrote:



when i moved to New Hampshire, when i got my first power bill, i found
i was being charged to have the blasted street light that was in front
of my house. all i could think was how crappy my luck was to have the
only street light in a very residential neighborhood/outskirt of town.
called PSNH and had that bad boy removed the next day.

what would be the chance that you were being charged for it? can you
call the town and have them pull the plug?

good luck. street lights make very bad neighbors....


Hi,

It's not my ac that's shutting off the street light- it's my next door
neighbor. But you make a good point. I wonder if she is being charged
for powering that street lamp. I'll bet that somehow she is!

She's an elderly woman, but I will bring it to her attention. I'd be
happy to call the power company and help her find out.

Starry Skies,
Rich

In article ,
Richard DeLuca wrote:

She's an elderly woman, but I will bring it to her attention. I'd be
happy to call the power company and help her find out.

Better yet, pull the fuse that controls the light. That way
she won't pay for it and you'll have street-light-less skies
until the Street Dept figures it out.

Even better, install an outdoor switch, the Street Dept will
never tumble to that.

Dark skies,

tom

--
We have discovered a therapy ( NOT a cure )
for the common cold. Play tuba for an hour.

In article ,
Richard DeLuca wrote:

She's an elderly woman, but I will bring it to her attention. I'd be
happy to call the power company and help her find out.

Better yet, pull the fuse that controls the light. That way
she won't pay for it and you'll have street-light-less skies
until the Street Dept figures it out.

Even better, install an outdoor switch, the Street Dept will
never tumble to that.

Dark skies,

tom

--
We have discovered a therapy ( NOT a cure )
for the common cold. Play tuba for an hour.

While I am a firm advocate to get rid of light pollution, especially
the blinding lights now installed at most gas stations, and many
closed businesses

Streetlights are very important to control crime, without them you
will notice a huge increase in car and home robberies

The best thing to do is to see if the streetlighting division will
install the low power orange lights, instead of the high power sodium
pinkish ones, the orange ones spread light down, while the other ones
lose most of the light to the sky

I see no problem if these are used, the real problems are the many
businesses and gas stations that you need sunglasses just to fill some
gas, but try getting your local legislature to take up that fight,
good luck, around here, brookhaven town, suffolk county, long island,
you have to scream, call back, twenty times before you can solve a
minor problem

local gov't here stinks

While I am a firm advocate to get rid of light pollution, especially
the blinding lights now installed at most gas stations, and many
closed businesses

Streetlights are very important to control crime, without them you
will notice a huge increase in car and home robberies

The best thing to do is to see if the streetlighting division will
install the low power orange lights, instead of the high power sodium
pinkish ones, the orange ones spread light down, while the other ones
lose most of the light to the sky

I see no problem if these are used, the real problems are the many
businesses and gas stations that you need sunglasses just to fill some
gas, but try getting your local legislature to take up that fight,
good luck, around here, brookhaven town, suffolk county, long island,
you have to scream, call back, twenty times before you can solve a
minor problem

local gov't here stinks

On 28 Aug 2003 21:04:34 -0700, (Gordon Gekko IDCC
on the Nasdaq) wrote:

Streetlights are very important to control crime, without them you
will notice a huge increase in car and home robberies

Baloney! I challenge you to cite a single credible study that
supports this poppycock. To the contrary, the studies I've read seem
to directly contradict the premise.

Wayne Hoffman
http://home.pacbell.net/w6wlr/
33° 49' 17" N, 117° 56' 40" W
"Don't Look Down"

On 28 Aug 2003 21:04:34 -0700, (Gordon Gekko IDCC
on the Nasdaq) wrote:

Streetlights are very important to control crime, without them you
will notice a huge increase in car and home robberies

Baloney! I challenge you to cite a single credible study that
supports this poppycock. To the contrary, the studies I've read seem
to directly contradict the premise.

Wayne Hoffman
http://home.pacbell.net/w6wlr/
33° 49' 17" N, 117° 56' 40" W
"Don't Look Down"

You must be in an unusual place for crime to increase when lights are out.
Security lights are very useful for criminals to see what they are doing, and
to not attract attention from police or passersby with flashlights to help them
commit their crimes. It is more ususal for vandalism to occur when security
lights go out, rather than more criminal activity.

Clear, Dark, Steady Skies!
(And considerate neighbors!!!)

You must be in an unusual place for crime to increase when lights are out.
Security lights are very useful for criminals to see what they are doing, and
to not attract attention from police or passersby with flashlights to help them
commit their crimes. It is more ususal for vandalism to occur when security
lights go out, rather than more criminal activity.

Clear, Dark, Steady Skies!
(And considerate neighbors!!!)

In message , Gordon
Gekko IDCC on the Nasdaq writes
While I am a firm advocate to get rid of light pollution, especially
the blinding lights now installed at most gas stations, and many
closed businesses

I don't see how closed businesses will be illuminated - no one to pay
the bills. US gas stations I agree you need sunglasses to visit at
night. They believe the extra light helps attract passing trade - they
may be right... moths to a flame.

Streetlights are very important to control crime, without them you
will notice a huge increase in car and home robberies

This seems unlikely - prime time for burglaries in the UK is mid
afternoon when no one is at home typically around the shopping and
school run time. I'd expect it to be even more like that in a country
where most homeowners have guns. Do you have any evidence to support
your claim?

The one thing that is strongly correlated is accidents on transport
systems and hours of darkness (historical records for the UK railways
show that accidents where visibility was a factor soar in unlit regions
during night time hours ).


The best thing to do is to see if the streetlighting division will
install the low power orange lights, instead of the high power sodium
pinkish ones, the orange ones spread light down, while the other ones
lose most of the light to the sky

That might be true if your region uses properly shielded full cutoff low
pressure sodium fixtures (like Belgium and USA near optical
observatories for instance) but it certainly isn't true in the UK. Here
LPS has a very bad reputation because the standard design sends almost
30% of the light skywards.

They are so energy efficient that no thought was given to optimising
them. They are still astronomer friendly even with this handicap because
their almost monochromatic light is fairly easily filtered out. They
would be a lot better in full cutoff luminaire fittings though (as used
near observatories).

HPS are increasingly being used for new street lighting and although
they are usually well installed in full cutoff designs the albedo of the
ground still reflects 10% of their output skywards. The problem with HPS
is there is no way to filter it out effectively.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown