Would energy efficiant street lights be an option to solving the Green house crisis?

Question

I was driving to cronulla the other night and noticed the significant amount of street lights when looking over the edge of the cliff we were on. Then i hatched this amazing idea that would cut heaps of tons of Australia's annual emissions

Answer 1

well..y not. it obviously wld contribute 2 solving d problem.

Answer 2

I think there already doing that.

But they only switch them if there burnt out.

Answer 3

well concidering there is miles and miles of street lights on the highways i would think it would

but it would cost taxpayers

overall i think it would help

probably not stop global warming but it would help

Answer 4

Every little bit helps, but to be honest, street lights are a very small fraction of a city's electrical usage. And an even smaller contributor of greenhouse problems.  Think about it like this....There is only one streetlight for every few houses.  Each of those houses uses about 10 times the electricity that a streetlight uses.  The streetlight is only on at night and only uses about 1000 watts of electricity per hour (one kw/hr) and since they are only on at night, they only use about 8000 watts per day.  One house uses about 50,000-100,000 watts of electricity per day.  And of course, the biggest offender of greenhouse problems is cars.  So while more efficient streetlight might help, the savings would be minimal.

Answer 5

In US most streetlights are High Pressure Sodium (the ones with the orange glow). They are very energy efficient and relatively low cost and long life. Moving towards a more energy efficient street light system would help the city's energy budget and also be used as a showcase for education purpose to the public. A lot of times the impact of a single project by itself is not significant but hopefully it can inspire others to do the same or more.

A list of various types of streetlight is available in the following link.

Answer 6

every little bit helps, you have to start somewhere.

The problem is the initial cost of converting lights to LEDs or CFL's. Even though they use 10% of the energy and will last a lot longer, if it costs 5 times more to replace the bulb, most places will not convert.

Answer 7

It could do something but not enough to even touch the problem.

http://hitechstupidity.blogspot.com/

Answer 8

It wouldn't 'solve' the greenhouse crisis, but it would sure help. If everyone thought like you, maybe we would achieve somthing. Good work.

Answer 9

Don't know about Aus, but in the UK street lights only use 20W each.

Answer 10

perhaps, but cars are the most

Answer 11

To some extent

Answer 12

I,m pretty sure they would go towards helping.

Answer 13

I think street lights have always been energy efficient by design.  I used to wonder about the same thing until I found that out.  Street lights don't use conventional incandescent bulbs, they are already efficient (as far as I know).

Answer 14

In CA we use low energy lighting already. I don't think there is one answer to the green house problem, I believe there are a million little changes and each one helps.

Answer 15

i suppose but there are better things to do