A company called Dial4Light is giving municipalities the option to put their street lighting on the control of residents’ cell phones. Essentially, the street lights stay off until a resident requests them via mobile on a per-street basis. I think I have that right – a person calls a central phone number, requests a particular street to be illuminated, and it stays illuminated for 10-15 minutes, then shuts down again. The approach seems to be solving the problem of control before solving the problem of efficient sources.
From Dial4Light’s website:
Your local municipalityis responsible for setting lighting times for public lighting. Dial4Light® assists the municipalities via this website, through optimising lighting times, i.e. by matching them to consumer demand. Residents and municipalities benefit from this scheme. Lighting times can be adjusteded within about two months after Dial4Light® is first installed. This period is required in order to collect and analyse a wide range of data (switching times, switching frequency per route etc.).
I’m not terribly sold on this concept quite yet, but I can see some positive benefits from it – energy savings, light pollution decrease, and maybe lamp savings. I could also see some very negative benefits from it, like safety.
What do you think? Post in the comments, please!
Thanks, BBC!
