· Why is the new light white not orange? As technology progresses and the need to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint becomes increasingly more important, older light sources become phased out due to their disproportionally high energy consumption compared to light output. The old “orange” lighting or Sodium/SOX lighting is no longer considered efficient enough and great savings have been made with modern replacements. · But why white light? The new white light, as well as being better at energy efficiency, provides a good clean light that makes recognition of obstacles and colour better at night. This is designed then to assist in better road safety for all road users. · Why is the new street light taller than the old one? In order to achieve maximum efficiencies the lights are located at certain levels above the ground to reduce the number of lights required to illuminate the road to the correct standard. We have sensible limits placed upon us within different classes of road, for example in a normal side road or cul-de-sac we are limited to 6m column height. On main roads or bus routes where the lighting requirements are higher we can use 8m, 10m or 12m columns. If we use shorter columns we will need to increase the number of lights required in a particular road to meet the design standards, increases in the number of columns and lanterns will significant increase the costs of both ongoing maintenance and energy consumption to Staffordshire County Council for the life of the unit. |