France to turn off lights at night

Cookie_Monster

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/30/us-france-lights-idUSBRE90T0HH20130130

French shops and office buildings will have to turn off their lights at night to save energy and reduce light pollution, the French environment ministry said on Wednesday.

From July 1, all non-residential buildings will have to switch off interior lights one hour after the last worker leaves the premises. All exterior and shop window lighting will have to be turned off by 1 am.

Bout time IMO, the level of wasted power and light pollution all these unnecessary lights must be massive on a worldwide scale. Now granted you can't turn everything off for safety reasons, emergency lights, streetlights etc but hopefully this will be a start.

paddy147

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/30/us-france-lights-idUSBRE90T0HH20130130



Bout time IMO, the level of wasted power and light pollution all these unnecessary lights must be massive on a worldwide scale. Now granted you can't turn everything off for safety reasons, emergency lights, streetlights etc but hopefully this will be a start.

Tesco have being doing this here in Ireland for the last 6 months or so.

They turn of alot of the lights in their supermarkets at night time to save energy.

Its kinda spooky walking around Tesco at 12 midnight doing the shopping and half of the lights are switched off.

IngazZagni

Hmm I wonder will that work. Most large offices will have some sort of activity happening throughout the night or at least a security guard present who would require some light. It is also used for security as lights would indicate the possibility of people being present preventing intruders. I do agree that there is some level of excess lighting that is not needed after a certain time and this could help to reduce that.

debabyjesus

paddy147 wrote: »

Tesco have being doing this here in Ireland for the last 6 months or so.

They turn of alot of the lights in their supermarkets at night time to save energy.

Its kinda spooky walking around Tesco at 12 midnight doing the shopping and half of the lights are switched off.

The 24hr one in clonsilla dims the lights at night alright.
My local one isnt 24hr yet it is bright enough at night to be seen from the moon.

Cookie_Monster

Tesco pack overnight so leave lights on, they should however all have sensor lights by now, they were installing these across the shops 5 years ago

Macha

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Tesco pack overnight so leave lights on, they should however all have sensor lights by now, they were installing these across the shops 5 years ago

The other thing Tesco (and all supermarkets) could do is cover their open fridges and freezers.

Well done on the French initiative, even if they have delayed it by 6 months.

Chloe Pink

IngazZagni wrote: »

Hmm I wonder will that work. Most large offices will have some sort of activity happening throughout the night or at least a security guard present who would require some light. It is also used for security as lights would indicate the possibility of people being present preventing intruders. I do agree that there is some level of excess lighting that is not needed after a certain time and this could help to reduce that.

Many offices are empty at night except for the security guard. Movement sensors swithching on lights would allow a security guard to move around; they would also indicate the presence of an 'intruder.

The more offices and shops that switch off lights at night, the better.

There is the idea that lack of street lighting helps reduce crime - criminal needs light to see what they're doing - said light shows up in an otherwise dark environment so 'highlighting' criminal activity.
Plus criminal may be afraid of the dark
Plus less light pollution filtering into peoples' houses
Plus the potential to see the amazing night skies!

ted1

Dublin city were encouraging companies to leave lights on in the IFSC as an an area it's not working on that once the offices close the place has no life.
With energy saving task lighting there is no reason why it should be off and good reason why it should be on.

I think there should be a bigger push towards low energy lighting And more thought given to task lighting