

Copenhagen Lighting the Way to Greener, More Efficient Cities - dnetesn
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/business/energy-environment/copenhagen-lighting-the-way-to-greener-more-efficient-cities.html?ref=technology

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abandonliberty
Light pollution and LED lighting is complicated.

LEDs appear to reduce light pollution as they are much more directional. They
are also far brighter than sodium with better color rendition.

Because of this we get images that look like light pollution is reduced:
[http://singularityhub.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/LA_LED_...](http://singularityhub.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/LA_LED_Skyline_Before_After.jpg)
[http://i.imgur.com/XHqUPOY.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/XHqUPOY.jpg)
[http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2014/05/photo-of-new-led-
st...](http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/2014/05/photo-of-new-led-street-
lights-taken-on-carling-ave-looking-east-across-the-st2.jpg?w=1000)

Unfortunately, light reflects. Particularly off of snow. What appears to be a
reduction in light pollution is in fact a dramatic increase in brightness,
resulting in lower exposure photographs that appear to have darker darks.
[http://www.universetoday.com/107372/leds-light-pollution-
sol...](http://www.universetoday.com/107372/leds-light-pollution-solution-or-
night-sky-nemesis/)

LED lighting is awesome but it won't darken our sky for stargazers.

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ams6110
_“It is now or never,” said Munish Khetrapal, who helps lead so-called smart
city efforts at Cisco Systems. “If you lose the opportunity, it’s going to
take another 20 years.”_

What???? Marketing by FUD? Why should the above statement be true? The
implication is that if you don't get your solution out now, you need to wait
20 years for the replacement cycle? If anything, early entrants to the market
are going to make a lot of mistakes. No way the first implementations are
going to be around for 20 years.

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jdhawk
Hopefully Copenhagen can get this done in a sane manner, by hiring a highly
skilled in house team to develop the software that connects all the pieces of
the puzzle they're installing.

All the sensors and reactive devices are useless without real usable software
linking them together in intelligent ways. Sadly, I don't have a lot of faith
in US Cities to pull this off. Government Agencies are model's of ineptitude,
and the big contractors that know how to navigate the system make big promises
that are riddled with budget overruns, and shoddy final products.

