Effects of LED Lights on Light Pollution

Recently, there’s been a popular move in many cities and towns to retrofit their lighting with LEDs. With cheaper energy use, it seems like a no brainer. What most local governments don’t realize, however, is that there are some serious drawbacks to LED lighting if the options are not properly researched.

Una descripción general rápida de la temperatura del color

First, let’s take a quick look at how our eyes perceive color. Our eyes are made up of rods and cones. Cones are what perceive color in daylight, and rods are our night vision, mostly transmitting information in shades of black and white. (On a separate tangent, most people in urban areas never use their rod vision anymore, a side-effect that has disastrous health consequences.) Daylight on the other hand yields the entire visible spectrum to us. The visible spectrum itself is made up of longer and shorter wavelengths that our rods and cones decipher as different colors as light hits our retinas. All the colors blended together are interpreted as white. Longer wavelengths appear warmer (reds, oranges, yellows), but confusingly, have a lower value on the Kelvin scale, the standard for measuring color temperature (1500K, 2700K, etc.). Conversely, shorter wavelengths appear cooler to the eye (greens, blues, purples). These have a higher value on the Kelvin scale, ranging from 6,500K (which would be considered a warmer-looking HD screen) to 27,000K, a clear blue sky.

Blue is the easiest to scatter not only in the atmosphere (hence blue skies and water), but also in our eyes. It’s therefore a bit harder to make out details in blue-rich light than it is in warmer-colored lights, which is where things get interesting.

El LED blanco

Due to the way LEDs (and fluorescent lights for that matter) are created, white is never actually an even blend of all the colors. In fact, to create a white-appearing light, it’s required to dramatically increase the shorter-wavelengths (i.e., blue). In normal daytime use, this isn’t much of a problem. Our eyes are already adjusted to the brightness of our surroundings, so the "white" appears perfectly natural. Once day gives way to night, however, a Pandora’s box is opened up by the white LED.

• Batalla cuesta arriba contra la evolución

  Durante los millones de años de nuestra evolución, nunca hubo luz blanca prolongada, o especialmente azul, después de la puesta del sol. Tener esta luz azul brillante mirando a los ciudadanos durante toda la noche puede tener graves consecuencias en el cuerpo humano (among most other animals). There’s an increasing amount of evidence confirming this that comes out practically every year. As it was described to me by Dr. Travis Longcore, we’re conducting a massive public health experiment on huge portions of our population without any kind of research or safety precautions being implemented.

• Brillo aumentado

  What many people don’t realize is that at the same wattage, white is significantly brighter than a warmer-appearing color. In fact, at the same wattage output, a white LED light will put out more than Ocho veces más brillo (y por lo tanto, contaminación lumínica) que una contraparte de aspecto más cálido. Los efectos secundarios de esto son un aumento en la contaminación lumínica general (incluso si apunta hacia abajo), efectos adversos para la salud humana y de la vida silvestre, y un gran salto en la entrada de luz.

• Traspaso de luz

  Reporte, después reporte, después reporte confirms that residents don’t like having daylight at night. It’s not just having daylight overpowering the night. It’s also that this light is so powerful, that it spills into bedrooms and living rooms like never before. This leads to more disturbed sleep and general dissatisfaction with the neighborhood itself. One community was kind enough to listen to its citizens’ complaints and reemplace las luces blancas por otras más cálidas, something we’re working with the Town of Jackson on fixing.

• Deslumbramiento aumentado

  The LED streetlights are designed in such a way that you can stand underneath them and not think it’s too bright. That’s because the lights are designed to emit light horizontally rather than downward. As a result, the light actually aumenta deslumbramiento en las carreteras y, por lo tanto, distrae a los conductores al hacer que sea más difícil ver la carretera en sí, junto con cualquier otra cosa en la carretera. Además de hacer que las calles sean menos seguras para el público en general, los ancianos experimentan un deslumbramiento aún peor, ya que la luz se dispersa más fácilmente en sus ojos.

Soluciones para LED blancos

La ayuda está con nuestra recaudación de fondos

Wyoming Stargazing tiene actualmente una recaudación de fondos en curso to help spread this kind of education and awareness. Since we’re currently working with the town and county, a donation will also have an impact in deciding how they light public areas from this point forward. We need your help though in making sure we have the funding to continue our efforts. Dirígete a este enlace para ayudarnos a hacer nuestras calles más seguras mediante la aplicación de una iluminación más amigable para la noche.

Farola LED de apariencia más cálida

Los fabricantes de LED también han estado observando cómo se desarrollan estos escenarios. Afortunadamente, ahora hay farolas de 3000K, much safer and healthier than the blue-intensive 6000K lights that are being installed across the country. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing them go even lower on the Kelvin scale. Flagstaff, Arizona makes great use of both warm-colored LEDs, as well as low-pressure sodium. The Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition has an excellent serie de gráficos mostrando el impacto que tiene cada tipo de luz en el cielo. Según su evidencia, el sodio de baja presión sigue siendo la opción ideal para una farola, pero también es una venta más difícil dadas las ventajas de bajo costo de los LED.

Luces de blindaje

Agregar un escudo protector para garantizar que la luz vaya hacia abajo y no hacia afuera es a menudo una solución fácil. Esto ayuda a reducir la cantidad de luz que se extiende hacia afuera y, por lo tanto, hacia arriba. El blindaje también reduce drásticamente el deslumbramiento, lo que hace que las calles sean mucho más seguras para los peatones y la vida silvestre.

¿Qué puedes hacer?

If you’re in the Jackson area, you can ayúdanos en nuestra recaudación de fondos, or signup for our newsletter at the bottom of the site to get updates on our progress, as well as when we could use volunteers. Those of you elsewhere can write your local politicians letting them know your concerns for LED streetlights, while also offering them the alternatives with the reasons why they’re more appropriate. As mentioned, some places will listen to their citizens’ concerns. Plus, the more people that communicate with their local governments about the issue, the more education they’ll have, and the more pressure they’ll have to act appropriately.