The Lamp Room

Immense dislike for the 6500K that some councils insist on using, it really is VILE. 4000K is ok, but honestly, warmer colours 3000K - 2700K really do suit outdoor lighting more than cold ones do. I'm lucky here - at least my council went for 3000K everywhere - granted, it;s not as nice as the SON / halide / PL-L it replaced, but it could be a LOT worse!

I'm with you on this - the harsh and cold laser like light rly does make the streets feel so depressing and unwelcoming. I am however liking the design of the LED Roadway NXT lanterns at my parents house area but at night they are poor performance with light distribution and the fact they are 6500K colour temperature with such poor CRI. I wish that they used the warm white versions that look like CMH light quality or even better left the Thorn Beta 5s alone

There are some good LED streetlights but honestly I wish that PFI style replacements did not take place

Whereas I can understand TLEs dislike to them, as a child of the 70s I would have to say no, they take me back to the mercury era of our town

As we were all SOX down here the warmer the better

Do you only ever remember the SOX as a kid Kev?, I was lucky to grow up with all 3!, MBF then SOX and SON!
I suppose the younger members on lighting sites sadly won’t have had that privilege?

Was all SOX here too when I was young. Whist nostalgic, the colour definition was crap to say the least. SON was at least a bit better, you could tell what colour things were (to a degree) under that. A 2700K - 3000K light source for outdoor lighting still keeps that nice warm feel, but gives you decent colour definition too

Yeah it’s interesting what we all grew up with! , I suppose if there’s any lighting enthusiasts that grew up in the post war era of the late 40s, would fondly remember the 2700 warm streets of the GLS days?

Most places near me have had SOX since the 1930's until they were replaced by LED!

I find it can be really tiring to drive in, many of the LED street lights dazzle due to the nature of LEDs with the very intense, small and concentrated area of light. To some extent, this may be psychological as LEDs for lighting are not my favourite. The lower the colour temperature, the better, and this is better for wildlife. There was always the advantage that the contrast in colour between streetlights and car headlights meant that it was possible to become aware of a vehicle approaching before it could be seen on corners and at junctions as the headlight beams could be seen. It's the classic case of someone solving one problem while creating a whole bunch of new ones which could have been foreseen

I far prefer the warm glow of SOX and SON too, to me the 4000K used now just doesn't look right, added to the rather poor light distribution of the lanterns they have used, it all looks quite rubbish.
Until 2019 we were lucky in my area to still be running almost completely SOX and to some extent SON. That very quickly changed in 2019 with the main roads getting LED then again in 2022 when all the remaining side roads were changed.
Until then almost every side road and housing estate here was lit with an assortment of 35W SOX lanterns from 1950's survivors to nearly new, early 2010's MI26's, the main roads were the same with the MA90 being a favourite in recent years, the last ones installed in 2012 or so.