In the beginning of the modern era, electric light was fantastically expensive. People used just enough light to get by. LEDs put out 7x as much light as an in

In the beginning of the modern era, electric light was fantastically expensive. People used just enough light to get by. LEDs put out 7x as much light as an incandescent bulb, so people can use 3x as much light as they need and still save money on their power bill. I have a neighbor that has a string of bulbs along their driveway. These are left on all night every night. City code requires "fully shielded" lighting, but the city ignores its own code. What Is a Fully Shielded Light Fixture? http://we-watch.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/FullyShieldedLightFixture-1.pdf http://we-watch.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/FullyShielded... The tragedy of the increased amount of blue light in our nighttime environment is that there's a bunch of old research about the physiological mechanism behind high-energy blue photons causing inflammation in the eyes. This gradually results in people having reduced low-light visual acuity. Whoops. I think people need to be told that artificial light is most useful to humans when it bounces off of things. This is why streetlights are mounted high on poles, and are designed so all the light is directed down. Bulbs that can be seen are mostly emitting wasted light. A friend recently bought some light fixtures on the basis of looking nice when the lights are off. I think they're gradually realizing that staring directly into LEDs is not a pleasant experience. In the old days, people bought light fixtures to hide the bulbs, and to direct the light where it's needed.