Street care and cleaning Street lighting facts
How many street lights are there?
There are approximately 6.5 million lighting columns in public ownership in the UK, and of this number some 23,708 street lights are in Shropshire.
How much energy does a street light use?
Typically, lights on residential roads are lower power than those on main roads. In simple terms, the electricity consumed by an ‘average’ light can cost between £25 and £65 a year.
How are street lights supplied with electricity?
Lighting columns are normally supplied from the same underground electricity networks which feed your home, these being owned by the electricity companies. Where electricity companies have no networks, for example in rural areas, we provide our own cables.
Why is the light from some street lights yellow/orange?
Lanterns used for street lighting purposes utilise different technologies with traditional street lighting lanterns relying on gas discharge lamps and less efficient tungsten filament ‘light bulbs’ like the ones previously used in domestic premisses depending on age. Modern lanterns now exclusively use LED technology which have a longer life and better efficiency. Regardless of the technology the elements contained within the light source give colour to the light emitted, referred to as colour temperature, with limited choice from traditional lamps to more available options utilising LED light sources.
The most common light source traditionally found in residential areas prior to LED sources utilised low and high pressure sodium lamps which were the most energy efficient lamps available at that time, but there were drawbacks with their strong orange/yellow colour making colour rendition (true colour) of objects difficult.
Is there any legislation governing the positioning of street lighting?
The standards for street lighting are laid down in British Standards BS.5469 and European Standard BS EN 13201.