Light Pollution | Rapsons Orkney - lighting energy waste

Colin Dunn

2005

Rapsons Orkney - lighting energy waste

During a recent week long stay on Orkney, I noticed that two extremely bright floodlights on the Rapsons Orkney Bus compound in the Kirkwall industrial estate were left on 24 hours a day. To compound the energy waste, the lights are asymmetric fittings designed to me mounted at or near horizontal, yet are tilted at about 70 degrees _above_ horizontal - most of the light shines straight up into the sky. Even during daylight the light in the photo is visible from 3 miles away along the coast, and at night it is by far the brightest light seen when entering from the West into Kirkwall (see picture #45). What makes these lights even more of an eyesore is how they contrast with excellent full cut-off lighting around the ferry terminal only a few hundred yards away, where far more light is created but directed properly downward with no dazzle or glare.
Picture Added on 23 October 2005.

Comments

I emailed the Rapsons head office in Inverness about this issue during the week after posting this picture and no. 45. No reply. Not surprising, in fact. Their Inverness bus park is enormously overlit and the floodlights there badly directed. It's a pity that they don't seem to care, especially as the sky glow over Inverness gets noticably worse as the years pass.
Added by Colin on 24 February 2006.