Street Lighting

Street lights, lampposts, whatever you wish to call them, play an important yet often underappreciated role in our everyday lives. There are many factors to consider in their design in order to get the maximum benefit from them. Here are just a few.

Brightness

It may seem like an obvious point to make, but if a street light doesn't actually provide enough light to fill the street adequately then it's really not doing its job. Of course, there are many different ideas on what "adequately means", but this really all relates to the purpose of your street light.

As well as making it safe so that you are less likely to bump into something during the evening hours, or providing enough light for drives to see pedestrians or cyclists who aren't clearly marked, street lights also play a crucial role when it comes to reducing crime. A lot of crime happens when it is dark, for the simple reasons that less people are about and crime is harder to see. However, without street lights we wouldn't be able to tell where noises such as a door being knocked in or a window being broken - or even the sound of an assault - are coming from. Our streets would be much ore dangerous without lights.

Design

While it's actually quite difficult to evaluate how pretty a streetlight is in the dark due to the fact you are staring at the more densely illuminated areas of the street (a bit like trying to look straight at the sun), during the day their beauty or otherwise is more obvious.

Skylar street lighting is perhaps one of the prettiest designs, as they have a stretched canopy over the lit area so that the light is dispersed more evenly. Another interesting design is that of the post itself, as you can see curved or jagged posts really adding to the character of the street.

Energy Efficiency

In these times of heightened green awareness it's important for councils to appear energy efficient. They can do this by using more efficient light bulbs as well as even having slightly fewer lampposts. OF course, by stretching fabric across the lit area - as with the Skylars - you can distribute the light more evenly and therefore need less power to keep the entire street bright enough.

As you can see there are plenty of different ways to keep a street light, and plenty of things to consider when doing so.

----------------------------------------------------
Fabric Architecture Ltd has been specialising in the design, engineering, manufacture and installation of tensile fabric structures since 1984. Learn more about fabric canopies at http://www.fabricarchitecture.com

EasyPublish this article: http://submityourarticle.com/articles/easypublish.php?art_id=248655