Why are the countie's street lamps fitted with Dawn to dusk sensors instead of motion sensor?
If street lights are retrofitted with motion sensors, this alone will save the taxpayers millions. Plus streets will be more sure because if the light in my street come on, I would know someone just went by or is nearby.
Anonymous, saving energy isn’t just about saving the environment: It’s about saving money. Electricity costs money. Street lights and the energy they consume are paid for by taxpayers, and taxes are universally too high already.
Personally, I think the environment is doing just fine. In my view, taxing energy for the sake of an environment that needs no help is just hurting people to no purpose. We should care for the environment, of course, but there comes a point where trying to do more is far too costly to justify the minuscule gains achieved. So please don’t lump me together with the “radical greens” you’re thinking of. I care about the environment, and I’m sure you do, too, but I’m not irrational about it.
You may be right about street lights that turn on and off being an annoyance. I guess it would depend on the neighborhood, where the lights are placed, and how sensitive they are to movement. On the other hand, if the lights are very efficient in terms of energy consumption, using motion sensors to save electricity might not be worth bothering with. In any case, this is all hypothetical until someone invents a replacement to the tried-and-true metal-vapor light.
y’all bunch of low IQ Green People! The amount of energy required to turn the lights on and off would be greater than or equal to the amount presently consumed.
These lights constantly turning on and off would be annoying to all.
Y’all inbred!
To Anonymous.
Is that a typical comment that spews from your keyboard? Is that a typical example of your contribution to the collective?
So said a person who is afraid even to use an avatar, or is just simply afraid that we’ll read the trail of garbage “it” considers as intelligent banter. Let us ask could you quote the amount of energy used per item referenced?.
I’m sure we will move forward when the technology is available. I haven’t actually looked into this, but I expect someone is working on it. The problem with LEDs, even the high-output ones, I think, is that it would take a massive number of them to equal one sodium-vapor lamp. The expense would be awesome. But lighting technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, so I think you’ll get your wish before too long.
Street lights work by heating either sodium or mercury metal until it vaporizes, then passing an electric current through this thin vapor. This start-up process takes time, so street lights don’t turn on immediately. Also, they use far more energy starting up than they do while just running, and turning on and off repeatedly would shorten the life of the bulb. So not only would motion sensors probably end up being more costly in the long run, they wouldn’t work in any case (unless the motion sensed were really, really slow).
Being Not much of an outside the box thinker. Who says that the lighbulbs must stay the same…What about replacing them with fast acting ultra bright LEDs? Those Sodiun/Mercury bulbs are 1940′s technologies time to move forward.