Street Lights spontaneously going out...

Zapho

So keeping in tune with the other topic on the Paranormal board about people constantly seeing the numbers 111 everywhere (even thought the thread was started in 2004!) It started me thinking about a coincidence (or whatever) that I noticed myself.

For a few years now, I've noticed that when I walk around at night, steet lamps have an odd tendancy to switch off when I'm near them. Obviously this doesn't happen all the time, but at least once a week, and at one point (before I had a car) it was almost daily! Now I didn't read anything into it at all, I just thought it was a bit freaky. But I decided to google it, and low and behold, I'm not the only one. Google "street lights going out" and see for yourself. Someone came up with the name SLIder (street light interference)....

Anyway I'd tend to agree that its more coincidence or my brian spotting a trend and trying to offer an explaination than paranormal activity.

Anyone else noticed this?

davyjose

Zapho wrote: »

So keeping in tune with the other topic on the Paranormal board about people constantly seeing the numbers 111 everywhere (even thought the thread was started in 2004!) It started me thinking about a coincidence (or whatever) that I noticed myself.

For a few years now, I've noticed that when I walk around at night, steet lamps have an odd tendancy to switch off when I'm near them. Obviously this doesn't happen all the time, but at least once a week, and at one point (before I had a car) it was almost daily! Now I didn't read anything into it at all, I just thought it was a bit freaky. But I decided to google it, and low and behold, I'm not the only one. Google "street lights going out" and see for yourself. Someone came up with the name SLIder (street light interference)....

Anyway I'd tend to agree that its more coincidence or my brian spotting a trend and trying to offer an explaination than paranormal activity.

Anyone else noticed this?

Happened me yesterday - reminded me of a Bret Easton Ellis novel I read.

Oriel

Zapho wrote: »

I've noticed that when I walk around at night, steet lamps have an odd tendancy to switch off when I'm near them.

Haha, you mean to say that they don't go out when you're not near them?
How do you know?
I mean, I've seen some stupid excuses for paranormal, but this just takes the biscuit.
...with all due respects.

6th

I once spoke to a guy who believed that there was a constant beam of "spirit light" shining down on him from the heavens. He presumed that when he walked under a street light that the beam hit the light sensor on the street lamp (which causes it to come on when it gets dark) to shut off the light. As he walked away the light would come on again.

He believed it 100% and just accepted it as fact, fasinating guy.

stevenmu

Oriel banned

Riamfada

Perhaps Stoner. The Mod of the Electrical forum. Might be able to run some tests. See if your giving off any crazy electronic fields.

iamhunted

this, admittedly, is something Ive often wondered about. manys a time ive noticed street lights going out either as I approach them or walk under them - like why choose that precise moment to stop working?

Could be just an energy thing

Slow Motion

About twenty years or so ago (showing my decrepitude here), I was leaving a friends house to go home to my own, it was about 11pm at night in early summer. My own house is about a mile from his with a straight road that jinks slightly to the right and then continues as it crosses a main intersection. Anyhoo, as I start walking up the road the street light about twenty feet ahead of me goes off, didn’t pay any heed really and I continue on, as I get about the same distance away from the next one it too goes out, okayyy, I pause and think to myself two in a row ? Bit of a coincidence and carry on. Same with the next one, this time I stop and look behind me at the other lights, they’ve come back on ! I start walking and this happens all the way home, except for the lights at the aforementioned intersection, I get twenty feet from the light it goes out I get about ten feet past it, it comes on again. Needless to say I am walking quite fast and a little freaked out by the time I get home. About six months passes and the incident is pretty much forgotten, unfortunately at this time my father suffered a major heart attack (recovered from it and is still going strong in his late eighties now) and was taken to Blanchardstown hospital. At the time all the wards in blanch were in different buildings all over the grounds of the hospital and quite some distance between them. So my father wanted me to get him a paper from the hospital shop which was in another part of the grounds, and the same thing happened again, all the way from the ward to the shop and back, twenty feet from the light it goes out ! Ten feet past it comes on again. Hasn’t happened since, but I have always wondered what the hell went on.

kshiel

This has jogged a memory from a fair few years back. There was a light just near where my house was and for an entire week everytime I approched it it went out. I remember after the about5 or 6th time of this happening and coming home one evening with the lovely hubby I paused and let him walk under it first and it stayed on but when I walked under it it went off and came back on after a few feet passed it so having a giggle I told my hubby to walk back under the light first and it stayed on but again when I walked back under the bloody thing it went off. It did it about 4 times that evening well we got bored after that and the neighours must have thought we were mental. I would say it wasn't in the least paranormal but it got a bit annoying by the end of the week.

Zapho

Grimes wrote: »

Perhaps Stoner. The Mod of the Electrical forum. Might be able to run some tests. See if your giving off any crazy electronic fields.

Thats the thing, I'm an electronic engineer myself, I've done a few electro-magnetic inferference (EMI) tests in my time but its silly to think that a human being could be a cause of EMI (even though some of the websites I looked seem to suggest that its a plausable explanation). Anyway EMI might mess up readings on very sensitive electrical equipment (like medical devices) but there's no way in hell it could shut off a street light.

I Just thought it was worth mentioning and its funny how many people have noticed the same! Although Slow Motion? I can't even hazard a guess as to what caused your experience, that must have been really freaky! Its only ever been on light at a time for me

Slow Motion

Zapho wrote: »

Although Slow Motion? I can't even hazard a guess as to what caused your experience, that must have been really freaky! Its only ever been on light at a time for me

I can honestly say it scared the bejasus out of me!:p

RoundyMooney

This is known as the cycling effect, and is common in high pressure sodium lamps as they near the end of their life. I can categorically state that this notion is up there with the well known orbs of light on digital photography bunkum.

Sorry. There may be paranormal proof, but not from either of these examples.

Slow Motion

RoundyMooney wrote: »

This is known as the cycling effect, and is common in high pressure sodium lamps as they near the end of their life. I can categorically state that this notion is up there with the well known orbs of light on digital photography bunkum.

Sorry. There may be paranormal proof, but not from either of these examples.

I didn't claim my experience was paranormal, but it certainly wasn't normal! Fortean (Bordean;)) perhaps!

Not The Real Scarecrow

stay away from the hospitals, christknows they have enough problems with out you shutting off all the electricity....but maybe...

iamhunted

when i left work yesterday evening and walked out to the car park, the very first light I walked until went out as I did so. hows that for coincidence!

Quackles

Had to laugh.. was reading this thread yesterday, then today as I was driving home, guess what happened? Correct, streetlights went out just as I got to them

dsmythy

I've noticed this as well. It seems quite a few people have. You could conclude that street lights go on and off frequently of their own accord. This would mean that it is pure coincidence that a light goes off when you are nearby. When you are not there the light in question is probably still going off at random intervals whether people are around to notice it or not.

Slow Motion

dsmythy wrote: »

I've noticed this as well. It seems quite a few people have. You could conclude that street lights go on and off frequently of their own accord. This would mean that it is pure coincidence that a light goes off when you are nearby. When you are not there the light in question is probably still going off at random intervals whether people are around to notice it or not.

True, but in my case it was about thirty, in sequence, the second time it was about half that I think.

iamhunted

thing that i wonder is how come you never see lights going out in the distance, or three or four lights ahead or do those of us who live on large estates notice lights going off randomly when no-one is out on the street? I;ve often seen expances of street lights but i cant remember ever seeing lights flickering out further down the street as many times as ive noticed lights dying just as I approach them.

dsmythy wrote: »

I've noticed this as well. It seems quite a few people have. You could conclude that street lights go on and off frequently of their own accord. This would mean that it is pure coincidence that a light goes off when you are nearby. When you are not there the light in question is probably still going off at random intervals whether people are around to notice it or not.

HungryJoey

Count me in too. I've noticed this several times walking under/by street lights before in the past. :eek:

Hj

Stoner

HungryJoey wrote: »

Count me in too. I've noticed this several times walking under/by street lights before in the past. :eek:

Hj

So have I , but I never put any thought into it. these lights take a few minutes to turn off and on again, so this idea of someone walking down the road and as you walk under a light it goes off but as you move on it comes back on, this IMO cannot electrically happen, once it goes out it will wait for a period of time before it goes on again.

I also seriously doubt that this has anything to do with electrical or magnetic fields coming from a person, if a field was strong enough to turn the light off it would most likely destroy the fitting and it would not be able to turn on again. If a person produced a field of that strength , over the distance between them and at 8M street pole then they would see monitors, TVs etc going for a hop all the time, a street light due to its height would be one of the least likely electrical items to be affected by an electric field IMHO.

Slow Motion

Stoner wrote: »

So have I , but I never put any thought into it. these lights take a few minutes to turn off and on again, so this idea of someone walking down the road and as you walk under a light it goes off but as you move on it comes back on, this IMO cannot electrically happen, once it goes out it will wait for a period of time before it goes on again.

I also seriously doubt that this has anything to do with electrical or magnetic fields coming from a person, if a field was strong enough to turn the light off it would most likely destroy the fitting and it would not be able to turn on again. If a person produced a field of that strength , over the distance between them and at 8M street pole then they would see monitors, TVs etc going for a hop all the time, a street light due to its height would be one of the least likely electrical items to be affected by an electric field IMHO.

I take your points and looking at the forum you mod I assume you know what you're talking about! In my case, the light would go off about twenty feet before I got to it and go on about ten feet after, thirty feet, that would take me less than a minute to cover and happened as I have said about thirty times in a row the first time, when I told someone about this before they thought it might have been some sort of elaborate hoax, which could be possible, but the fact that it happened again about six months later in a different part of the city knocks that on the head IMO!

Stoner

Sure who knows what it was/is I was only suggesting that electrical fileds are unlikely to be the cause IMO as if it was electric fileds that you would see similar results with most electrical appliances, as the further away something is from a magnetic fleld the less it will feel its result, and street lights are 8M high.

I'm not saying I know what it is, just my opinion on what it is not.

AssassinX

Yeah that stuff tends to happen to me alot also like i never really bothered to look into it but i aint sure just letting you know.....this stuff usually signifies a bad omen coming you better keep an eye open.

phill106

Kept happening to the light outside my house, and the next one over. Everytime i pulled in or out, light would go on or off..
Called esb...fixed!
So while i wouldnt rule out paranormal for somethings, here id say it was a faulty light.

Dave!

I had always thought that street lights had LDR's on them or somethin like that, and they automatically came on once it got dark.... is this not the case? :eek:

6th

phill106 wrote: »

Kept happening to the light outside my house, and the next one over. Everytime i pulled in or out, light would go on or off..
Called esb...fixed!
So while i wouldnt rule out paranormal for somethings, here id say it was a faulty light.

But its not just one light, or 2. This is a well known phenomena around the world.

DaveMcG wrote: »

I had always thought that street lights had LDR's on them or somethin like that, and they automatically came on once it got dark.... is this not the case? :eek:

Yep, thats the way they work afaik but see my post below for an interesting take on the phenomenon.

6th wrote: »

I once spoke to a guy who believed that there was a constant beam of "spirit light" shining down on him from the heavens. He presumed that when he walked under a street light that the beam hit the light sensor on the street lamp (which causes it to come on when it gets dark) to shut off the light. As he walked away the light would come on again.

He believed it 100% and just accepted it as fact, fasinating guy.

Stoner

6th wrote: »

I once spoke to a guy who believed that there was a constant beam of "spirit light" shining down on him from the heavens. He presumed that when he walked under a street light that the beam hit the light sensor on the street lamp (which causes it to come on when it gets dark) to shut off the light. As he walked away the light would come on again.

Have to say that I can't see this being the answer, like i said I dont know the answer, but I have an idea on what it is not. Each Street Light has its own dedicated dusk till dawn / timed photo switch.

this beam of light would need to be visable to the naked eye to interact with the switch in the way that this guy thinks it does. Let me get this straight he thinks that this beam is so bright that the street lights sensor detects the light and makes a decission that it is bright and therefore no need for it to be on, so it turns off?
IMO if this was the case the guy would be constantly lit up, when outside.

6th

He discribes it as "Spirit light" ... whatever that is. He thinks its an invisiable light but thinks that whatever form it is in it effects the street lights. Sounds like he means it would be like infra red light or something? No idea but he fully believes it and it happens to him all the time.

If he lived in Ireland I'd head off and film him walking under the lights!