LED street lighting

[speedog]

Created this thread to discuss LED street lighting in Calgary (and to attempt to keep another thread on topic).

Anyhow, the CoC is plodding ahead with the conversion to LED street lighting - nearest to my home is the community of Tuxedo Park and all I can say is I'm indifferent to LED based street lighting. Driving through Mount Pleasant into Tuxedo Park and it is quite an abrupt transition from the high pressure sodium fixtures in Mount Pleasant to the LED fixtures in Tuxedo Park. The LED fixtures have a much sharper drop-off/lesser spread which in turn seems to leave more dark spaces on a block but the whiter lighting is welcome in some ways too.

Certainly I can appreciate the daily energy cost savings that the LED's provide over the sodium fixtures and although the CoC claims they're using a "warmer" colored LED, the ones in Tuxedo Park still seem quite harsh to me. Of course, I remember the days when the CoC converted to sodium fixtures and how everyone didn't like the orange glow/light they put out - replacing the older, whiter mercury vapour fixtures.

Never the less, I support the conversion to LED fixtures for the CoC streetlights - am doing it slowly in my home and our community's new outdoor rink will most likely have LED lighting as well.