Having lights in your house is a necessity. I have lived for a couple of
weeks just using a wind up lantern and bike light. Its depressing and a massive
pain (expletives removed). After rugby and a couple of jars at
the Faltering Fallback I got home to find that
I'd accidentally left the battery for the DC micro grid off which meant
that there was no charge in the battery from the solar panel. It was a
gloriously sunny day, we won't see one like that for at least a week.
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It really doesn't have to be like this, over the
last few years LED lighting has come on in leaps and bounds. The cost of an LED
light used to be prohibitively expensive and only give a cold, white
and unpleasant type of light. More recently you can get a decent bulb
to replace your bayonet, screw or halogen spotlight from about £10 - £30. Still
quite expensive but with a much longer life and only using about 5% of the energy that an incandescent bulb uses and also much less energy compared to CFLs (the last generation of energy
efficient lighting). And unlike CFLs, LEDs light up to full
brightness instantaneously. You can find bulbs which feel like the
old incandescent bulbs, giving off a warm, yellowish glow, if that's
what you like.
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Here is the view outside my flat, the park to the
left is being lit by LEDs, they've used a cold white kind of light which I
think feels like really bright moonlight or star light. Ideal for a park.
Contrast that to the sickly yellow light from the streetlights to the right of the
image. The incandescent light gets everywhere causing light pollution. The switch
over to LED lighting will not only save about 95% of the energy used compared
to old incandescent lighting but also mean that we will be able to see the
stars in the cities again.
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| With the switch over to LED lights we'll be able to focus the light more effectively, reducing glare and light pollution. Maybe we'll be able to see the stars in the cities again. |
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