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Title is misleading; it's not LED streetlights, it's the color temperature of LED streetlights. While the article raises a few good points, color temperature is

Title is misleading; it's not LED streetlights, it's the color temperature of LED streetlights. While the article raises a few good points, color temperature isn't new; it's not like LEDs have some inherent issue that impacts health.

parennoob 10y ago
As long as a sizeable majority of LED streetlight in current usage have the blue color temperature (currently, as far as I know all, or almost all of them do), that's an acceptable approximation. In any case, the original article's title mentions white LED streetlights -- so I guess making that clear in the title here might help.
stormbeta 10y ago
True, but there's a real problem with people and places using lights with far too high a temperature, and even when shopping for home LED lights it's surprisingly difficult to find low temperature lights that aren't low on lumens output. Pretty much anything over 3000K looks horribly blue at night, and if it wasn't such a massive pain to find them I'd prefer <2000K.
- Laforet 10y ago
  I have a bigger issue with fluorescent lights: They have a discontinuous spectrum[0] that can mess with your perception of colour as well as a noticable flicker that gets worse as the tubes age. Some of the newer "warm tone" CFL bulbs appears to do better better on these aspects. [0]: http://minerva.union.edu/newmanj/Physics100/Light%20Production/LampSpectra.gif http://minerva.union.edu/newmanj/Physics100/Light%20Producti...
  - jhanschoo 10y ago
    Don't LEDs have a similar (or worse) spectral profile?
    - reportingsjr 10y ago
      LED lights tend to have a much better spectrum than fluorescent bulbs. http://www.designingwithleds.com/the-new-cree-tw-series-led-t8-review-and-teardown/ http://www.designingwithleds.com/the-new-cree-tw-series-led-...
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  LIFX makes [IMO] pretty great LED bulbs with controllable temperature. They don't require a central hub like Phillips Hue, and you can find them on sale right now since the newer model is smaller and fits more fixtures. http://www.lifx.com/products/white-800?variant=933783339 http://www.lifx.com/products/white-800?variant=933783339 Still 20x+ the cost of a normal bulb, and the tech probably won't work in 5 years, but it works well enough as a dumb bulb once the temperature is set that even when they inevitably go out of business or get acquired and shut down by Google, it should still be the temperature you want.
twelvechairs 10y ago
Although changing the colour temperature gets you somewhere its also the extreme spectral spikes of led as a technology which is notably worse than other kinds of lighting

parennoob 10y ago

As long as a sizeable majority of LED streetlight in current usage have the blue color temperature (currently, as far as I know all, or almost all of them do), that's an acceptable approximation. In any case, the original article's title mentions white LED streetlights -- so I guess making that clear in the title here might help.

stormbeta 10y ago

True, but there's a real problem with people and places using lights with far too high a temperature, and even when shopping for home LED lights it's surprisingly difficult to find low temperature lights that aren't low on lumens output. Pretty much anything over 3000K looks horribly blue at night, and if it wasn't such a massive pain to find them I'd prefer <2000K.

Laforet 10y ago
I have a bigger issue with fluorescent lights: They have a discontinuous spectrum[0] that can mess with your perception of colour as well as a noticable flicker that gets worse as the tubes age. Some of the newer "warm tone" CFL bulbs appears to do better better on these aspects. [0]: http://minerva.union.edu/newmanj/Physics100/Light%20Production/LampSpectra.gif http://minerva.union.edu/newmanj/Physics100/Light%20Producti...
- jhanschoo 10y ago
  Don't LEDs have a similar (or worse) spectral profile?
  - reportingsjr 10y ago
    LED lights tend to have a much better spectrum than fluorescent bulbs. http://www.designingwithleds.com/the-new-cree-tw-series-led-t8-review-and-teardown/ http://www.designingwithleds.com/the-new-cree-tw-series-led-...
seanp2k2 10y ago
LIFX makes [IMO] pretty great LED bulbs with controllable temperature. They don't require a central hub like Phillips Hue, and you can find them on sale right now since the newer model is smaller and fits more fixtures. http://www.lifx.com/products/white-800?variant=933783339 http://www.lifx.com/products/white-800?variant=933783339 Still 20x+ the cost of a normal bulb, and the tech probably won't work in 5 years, but it works well enough as a dumb bulb once the temperature is set that even when they inevitably go out of business or get acquired and shut down by Google, it should still be the temperature you want.

twelvechairs 10y ago

Although changing the colour temperature gets you somewhere its also the extreme spectral spikes of led as a technology which is notably worse than other kinds of lighting