|
Aha!!!
You have expanded my light pollution
education!
Thanks, Cliff.
We need to get more IESNA members involved in local
politics.
You are correct, it was Musco Lighting. It has been
nearly a year since town meeting was presented with the proposal and my memory
was never very good.
They certainly sold us a bill of goods, and it will
reflect in the towns' electric bill.
They told the Recreation Department that they were
installing full cutoff lighting.
My concerns go far beyond astronomy. It
is glare elimination or reduction, and light trespass that I believe
are most important, especially for seniors. It is as dangerous to a driver as
having a cellphone glued to the ear while driving in hazardous conditions. (
this is one of my definitions of stupid ) Of course, my stargazing will
also benefit.
We certainly need SofT Lighting Systems to get an
advertising campaign going in the Northeast. Before long, there will be
competing systems. I would think it would be a lot easier for players to see a
fly ball at night. Some of Musco's luminaires at Marvin Field are directed at an
angle of 45 degrees toward the private homes. Regardless of intensity, it
would be necessary to put up a wall or a dense line of staggered trees
to minimize the trespass.
I purchased the Los Angeles Video on LP from IDA
but was disappointed with its' slant. It was not as convincing as the
presentations at the Boston meeting.
Clear,Dark Skies,
Paul V.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2003 11:07
AM
Subject: Re: [Nelpag] RE:
(ATMoB:Announce) Dark Sky
In a
message dated 7/1/2003 8:28:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, volz@attbi... writes:
Lightolier does inside lighting so I find it difficult to
believe that they
would care about this bill. Perhaps they are part of a
larger company, and
another division does outdoor lighting and they are
sticking up for them.
However, their other companies listed on their web
site are all primarily
for indoor lighting.
Sorry to
hear about the Mass efforts getting trumped again. Lightolier is a
subsidiary of Genlyte Thomas Group, LLC, who also owns Emco, Gardco, Hadco,
Lumec, Lumec-Schreder, McPhilben, Stonco, Thomas Outdoor, Wide-Lite, and Zed,
which are all prominent outdoor commercial luminaire manufacturers.
Some of these companies offer very nicely shielded full cutoff
lighting products with good photometric performance and others are real retina
burners. It is curious why a manufacturer of high quality indoor
lighting products that offer excellent shielding would be concerned about an
outdoor lighting bill. I have used Lightolier products on many interior
lighting projects over the years for commercial chains like Casual Corner,
Boston Market, Gymboree and other popular mall invaders.
Re: Paul V's
comments on *Musto* -- unless he was referring to Tom Musto Productions (a
theater and cinemaphotography lighting firm) it was not correct on two
counts... First, I believe it is Musco Lighting he meant, not Musto, and
second, spun aluminum reflector sports flood lighting like that offered by
Musco, GE, Hubbell, Northstar and others cannot achieve full cutoff optics
(FCO) classification with regard to intensity limits occurring in specific
vertical angular zones.
Full cutoff is a lot more than just no
light emission above the horizontal plane through the lowest light emitting
part of the luminaire as it is installed. FCO's primary benefit is that
it reduces candela emissions (intensity) in the glare zone between 80 degrees
up to less than 90 degrees vertical angle through all lateral angles around
the luminaire. Those emissions are restricted to no more than 10% of the
total lamp lumens (i.e., 100 cd per 1000 lamp lumens) for each viewing angle
within that vertical photometric zone. Additionally zero candela
emissions are allowed at and above the horizontal plane calculated from the
photometric center of the luminaire. It is a very common error many dark
sky advocates who are not lighting professionals make.
Otherwise, what
has mistakenly perpetuated ad infinitum as being called *full cutoff* lighting
is actually *fully shielded* lighting, which only limits light at and above
the horizontal. That does nothing for light trespass or glare control,
but it does have a positive effect to restrict skyglow. This technical
blooper of misinformation when it creeps into proposed legislation is
responsible for many of the lighting manufacturers (NEMA especially)
introducing doubts in legislators' minds about whether our efforts have any
merit. Our cause would greatly benefit by continuing further education
of the participants because it allows us to communicate more effectively on
both sides.
For Musco lighting to control light trespass and uplighting
as well as improving the visibility for players on the field relatively well
it needs to be mounted very high and aimed downward rather than outward.
The TLC system must also be employed. Their Level 8 shielding is
ineffective and since it is highly specular it does not work to either
mitigate glare, skyglow, nor light trespass problems well at all, especially
when the luminaires are mounted lower than 50 feet
high.
http://www.musco.com/permanent/tlc.html
For the past
several years I have been encouraging Del Armstrong to establish a distributor
here in New England because his SofT Lighting Systems is the only large field
sports lighting that meets true full cutoff optics classification. We
have been seeking a firm in Mass that specializes in sports lighting without
much luck. If you know of any please let me know off-list. It is
superb lighting and uses a mix of HPS and pulse start Metal Halide with 1000
watt lamps to reduce maintenance while also providing excellent color
rendition without needing to put 250 horizontal footcandles and 175 vertical
footcandles on the field.
http://www.softlite.com/
Clear
skies and good seeing,
Keep looking up!
Cliff Haas
Author Light
Pollution Awareness Website
(LiPAW)
http://members.aol.com/ctstarwchr
http://www.crlaction.org
Member:
IESNA, CRL, IDA, NELPAG, CTIDA
_______________________________________________
Nelpag
maillist -
Nelpag@harvee...
http://harvee.org/mailman/listinfo/nelpag
|