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Comment by petee | Hacker News Reader

In my area I've noticed the problem isn't so much that they are brighter, but that our new bulbs just emit light near 180 degrees (sideways) with no control over direction.

It causes light to flood into homes, and more than half isn't even illuminating the road. They also have no diffusion, so its harsh on the eyes. A bad design all around

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I often wonder how cutting and folding a bit of sheet metal and bolting it onto the streetlight as a shroud is overlooked whenever streetlights are built or repaired. There's one that shines directly into my bedroom but there's no good reason for it to illuminate any part of the building I live in.

Try contacting your city about it. Here they will come around within a few weeks and do as you suggested if you complain.

Yes they did this for my parents house. A guy with some sheet metal and a shears.

Yep. This is low hanging fruit for making constituents happy. I emailed my city councilor about this because I couldn't figure out who to ask at public works. The next morning a work truck rolled up and installed a shield on the light nearest to my house.

Its often the most offensive shade of bright white fluorescent-like LED. Why can't they do the orange one that lets everyone be ok seeing light at night and sleeping to tell the tale

LED it's more power efficiencient . However, there are LED light bulbs that have some kind of filter that makes it more ambient and astronomy friendly. Normal white LEDs are a nightmare for astronomy, because his light spectrum it's hard to block with any kind of "anti light pollution" filters.

Its basically prison light, I would only ever use it to wake up in the morning. Anybody who seriously uses it to save money in a frequented space or in place of proper soothing ambient light is a bit off in my view. It makes me unhappy and feel beyond agitated whenever I am compelled to be around it.

2800k LEDs are not filtered white light afaik.

A bit of background for those who may not be aware, white LEDs are UV LEDs with a white light emitting phosphor. I suspect 2800 K LEDs are a UV LED with a 2800 K light-emitting phosphor.

Whats the orange one? I've seen pics of streetlamps like that unless its a MandelaEffect or somethint

You might be thinking of sodium vapor lights

Yes! Why doesn't everyone just use these? Where there's astronomical concerns or people agree its just a nice and worthwhile end to be able to see the night sky, maybe use the low-pressure sodium but yeah.

Edit: I wonder what gets used in "rich" places in contrast to "poor" places. I feel like rich people get the night sky and poor people get headaches and insomnia. So sick of this shit

Is there any correlation between wealthy districts and poor districts in terms of type of light used? I feel like everyone would want to accomodate the rich areas and make sure they can see the night sky and sleep and not have the unpleasent "poor" flurorescent/led "cost-savings" light

I wonder if some jurisdictions assume people prefer having the light go far and wide, for security / safety.

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