Sheading light on one off rural housing

[Aken]

Having traveling back and forth from Galway over the last year i have seen what These so called one off houses have done to the countryside. Now i'm not here to rant on about them being wrong or right etc... But Why do they;
A. All look the same, PVC wondows and doors, low maintainance dry dash exteriors and those stupid fluted pillar things around the front door?
B. All feel the need to now light up their homes with floodlights all through the night. Everybody everywhere is doing it and i think it is ridiculous. Surely there is such a thing as light polution?

[FIN]

i do agree that they look awful. and yea what is up with the lights???? it's just making sure we see their ugliness all the time. however i do prefer them to the alternative of never ending housing estates with all houses looking the same. time to get the height restriction in towns abolished to a certain degree.

[GregF]

To put it another way too...... the lights are on to keep the burglars away.
There's nothing more worse too than a dingy house with no lights whether it be in the countryside or city.

[FIN]

that's true

[Harry]

Alarms are better than lights when dealing with burglars.

Lighting around one-off housing should be automated so that it is only on when required. This makes sense in both running cost and light pollution.

Also, a little bit of thought in the choice of lighting would not go astray in most cases. Well chosen (and installed !) feature lighting would make a house look so much better than a couple of halogen lamps slapped on to the side of the house.

[Paul Clerkin]

A friend of mine bought solar powered lamps as security lights for around his mothers house in Kerry. It means that there is light for a few hours after dark when you're still out and about but without the electricity waste. An ad regards light pollution they dont throw as powerful a light out....

[FIN]

that sounds cool..... do they require direct sunlight...only asking cos if it's a bad day ( lots of cloud like nearly everyday) does it still work the same and is there a back up to the electricity??? i know that would kida defeat the whole purpose of it but it could be interesting

[d_d_dallas]

Weirdly enough solar cells actually work better out of direct sunlight - which makes Ireland a much better place to solar power stuff than say - California.

[FIN]

seriously?
that's quite strange.

[Paul Clerkin]

No back up but even dullish days provide enough power for a few hours....

[d_d_dallas]

It's to do with the optimum operating temperature of the semiconductor that makes up the cells - the hotter the less efficient the performace... thus ending today's quantum physics lecture!

[GrahamH]

Its not just floodlights, what about the 'Victorian' lanterns lining their unfinished driveways, and the 300w bulbs with coloured gels blasting up at their beloved cherub water features in the front garden?

Oh, oh, and the halogen spots placed at 3 inch intervals beneath the eaves of the house, and the the 3 arm lamp standards at the front door, and pretentious lanterns atop the gateposts (or alternatively illuminated eagles), all of which says more than words ever could...

[GrahamH]

Concrete corinthian columns and PVC fanlighted doors are my personal favourite.

But ONLY if they're flanked by fibreglass-reinforced resin, 'cast iron' lions.

Lovely.

[Aken]

OH we all laugh but the scary thing is that this kind of thing is far far to common (both ways)

[FIN]

i know....scary!!!!!