Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Street Lighting In Modern Times

By Marci Glover


It is common for streets to have tall posts on which bulbs are mounted to facilitate vision over a wide field of view. Methods are always put in place to control the bulbs in street lighting. Photocells that sense light are in modern days the main components of lamps. They are charged with the responsibility of putting on the lights when needed and off when not needed. In the past, solar dials assisted in doing this job. The poles on which the sources are mounted are always interconnected using cables.

Before incandescent bulbs were invented, candle lighting was used in lighting cities. In the years that followed, bulbs were lit by people who went round the city every evening. They were then slightly improved to use an ignition machine that could strike fire automatically provided the supply of fuel was activated.

Invention of arc lamps made its mark as the foremost electric street illuminating method. Lamps made of carbon arcs using alternating current were used for ensuring that consumption of both electrodes took place at an equal rate. A departmental store in the French capital used this lighting system. The disadvantage with this type of illumination was the harsh intense light it emitted. It caused a lot of discomfort in towns, and maintaining it was time and resource consuming. They were replaced by brighter, cheaper and more reliable incandescent bulbs.

The operation of incandescent bulbs was often done using a lot of power through series arrangement of circuits. The high voltage carried by the circuits increased the usage of these lamps since they gave out more light per watt consumed. Series arrangement of circuits made controlling the bulbs less troublesome.

Currently, high intensity discharge lamps are used in lighting the streets. They are in most cases high pressure sodium lamps. They give out very large amounts of illumination while using little amounts of power. They are, however, inappropriate for lighting at night compared to white light. White light has been proven to help drivers see better at night, and react to brake faster than pressured sodium lamps.

Light induction is an example of new technology in street illumination. It emits white light that produces better lumen. This technology, therefore, enables lights that need less electricity and lumen to be used in place of current ones. Absence of formal specifications on these lights has rendered them useless for sometime awaiting approval. There has been a substantive acceptance of LED luminaries due to the confirmation that there energy-efficiency is higher than that of previous designs.

A new harmonized measurement system has been invented. It operates using two concurrent measuring systems. This was seen as being a noble invention since less energy is spent compared to earlier methods. The cost of measurement is greatly reduced. It is possible to measure three light pollution properties; glare, trespass and glow, using this method. It is also practical to assign a value to the performance of current and future lighting applications and designs for the sake of cutting down the amount of light crossing the borders of any property.

Accidents can be prevented, and safety promoted through proper lighting on the streets. However, if caution is not taken, street illumination can turn out to be disastrous. Street users and drivers are likely to encounter night blindness; stray energy that may cause electrocution, and fatal collisions caused by poor lighting.




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