solar street light

[fatlazyless]

Here's something new that I have never-ever seen anywhere before. The Town of Waterville Valley, www.watervillevalley.org, just recently installed a solar powered outdoor streetlight at the big intersection of Valley and Packard Rds, just across from the White Mountain Athletic Center.

Unlike what you may envision for a street utility pole and light, all the solar panels are contained within the 50' or so, high, aluminum pole, which makes it look like a charcoal grey, high tech, expensive looking, street light. The solar panel front half of the pole is facing to the south. So, there are no standard flat solar panels, all the panels are designed within the round pole body, and face forward on the front half that faces to the south.

Have yet to see the lamp lit up at night?

A little background; about five years ago, the town had about 65 standard NH wood utility poles and street lights removed and replaced them all with a "dark sky initiative program' that uses olde London, Beacon Hill style, satin black, aluminum street lamps which do not eminate very much light and it all shines downward so as not to obscure the night time sky.

Anyway, this street light is something different, and probably came from the same thinking as the dark sky initiative street lights......a solar powered street light!

ps ........I'd post a photo here except I don't do photos very well...........sorry!

[ApS]

Unlike what you may envision for a street utility pole and light, all the solar panels are contained within the 50' or so, high, aluminum pole, which makes it look like a charcoal grey, high tech, expensive looking, street light.
Like these—in China?

http://image.ec21.com/image/sjenergyco/ml_home/Sejong_Energy_Co._Ltd..jpg

...I'd post a photo here except I don't do photos very well...........sorry!
Start with a "right-click", and select "Properties".

We'll walk you through this. ;)

[Orion]

Great idea to use solar. With rapidly advancing LED tech, these should soon become commonplace. Love the Dark Skies initiative. It's been around a while but slow getting adopted by many towns. Our town in central MA used to be good for observing night sky, but not any more since the town installed wasteful "antique-looking" lights in the center which shine upwards as well as downward (not smart). http://www.darksky.org

[fatlazyless]

www.inovussolar.com/solarstreetlighting

This one new street light in Waterville Valley looks to be a "Design Series off-grid" as shown in the website, and as I mentioned, all the solar panels are within the 40' or so high aluminum pole, so it appears to not have any panels, and it does not have a standard flat solar panel as do some other models in this website. So, it looks pretty much, more or less, like a modern version of your atypical urban-city, street light.

That location can catch a whole lot of wind, as the Valley Rd-Packard Rd street name sign located nearby has been blown apart by the wind in the past, so a standard flat solar panel model would probably not have been a good choice as the wind would likely break it up.

Looking at it last night, in the dark as I drove past, it just does not give off any more than a small spot of white light onto the pavement 40' or so below, and comes nowhere close to the brightness of the regular street lights in other NH towns. You know, driving or walking around Waterville Valley at night, what with all these 65 "dark sky" street lights and this new solar street light; the whole small town, with the exception of one hotel and the athletic center parking lot all look to be dimly lit......and Waterville Valley has a lot of pedestrian sidewalks, like maybe three or four miles of sidewalks, that do get a lot of use by people out walking........so people just deal with the lower light levels of the dark sky initiative, low level public lighting.


Say hey......if you want to go take a walk at night in Waterville Valley......maybe you want to carry along a flashlight?

[SIKSUKR]

Love the idea of dark night sky but I'm sure when somebody gets attacked on those unlit walkways there will be cry for more lighting. Just saying.

[Orion]

The Dark Skies project promotes lighting that doesn't shine UP, but doesn't preclude lighting that shines DOWN. Light up those walkways. :)

Same holds true for lighting shoreline properties. We actually have indirect lighting throughout our yard (I modified some low-voltage lights to not glare). So our ground walkways are lit up, as well as our dock, porch and deck, but when coming in by boat, you don't see any glaring light bulbs. Helps save the night vision for passing boaters.

[SIKSUKR]

I was refering to this post by FLL
with the exception of one hotel and the athletic center parking lot all look to be dimly lit......and Waterville Valley has a lot of pedestrian sidewalks, like maybe three or four miles of sidewalks, that do get a lot of use by people out walking........so people just deal with the lower light levels of the dark sky initiative, low level public lighting.
Say hey......if you want to go take a walk at night in Waterville Valley......maybe you want to carry along a flashlight?

I am quite aware of what the Dark Skys project is all about and made it manditory for down lighting only when we decided on our new lighting for our 200 car parking lot.