In an effort to reduce electricity use and put out less light pollution, a municipality could mandate that bright outdoor lighting be shut off on clear nights.

To make this easier, a power utility could install switches for outdoor home lighting that can be centrally controlled from the grid to be switched on when it's dark and cloudy, or foggy. Our house is already wired with a similar device that turns on and off our air conditioner at times more efficient for them while still allowing us to effectively cool our house.
-- evildork, Oct 04 2007

Night Vision For All Night_20Vision_20For_20All
Could be combined [8th of 7, Aug 16 2011]

I think many street lamps have light detecting sensors built into them, though the idea for collectively turning them off to enable the viewing of a night sky has merit, but watch the crime statistics ! +
-- xenzag, Oct 04 2007


Lisa Simpson asked me to bun you.
-- awesomest, Oct 05 2007


change your name to really lovely dork
-- po, Oct 05 2007


In order to implement the idea without crime rates soaring, motion sensors could activate each street light and the ones adjacent to them only if there is movement.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 05 2007


less light pollution would be nice.
-- bnip, Oct 06 2007


Crime rates? We here have the capability - with motion sensing, MP3 playing, Bluetooth networked garden gnomes - to halt any dark-induced crime wave!
-- lurch, Oct 06 2007


I don't see that crime would be a problem; where these systems are in use you'd just need to put up "NO CRIME ALLOWED" notices. [+]
-- vincevincevince, Oct 07 2007


I assume the municipality would similarly mandate that vehicles drive without headlights.

<rant> They should mandate that headlights on new vehicles shouldn't exceed 1990 levels of lumen. Kind of a Kyoto Protocol initiative to restore some sense to the current manufacturers' Red Queen-esque headlight power race. </rant>
-- Texticle, Oct 07 2007


//motion sensors// Aren't "crime sensors" what we really need to make this work?
-- ed, Oct 09 2007


Wouldn't the muggers just watch the weather channel more?

I'm not sure I would like the strobe effect of several someones getting mugged outside of my house.
-- nomocrow, Oct 09 2007


I wonder if anyone has developed a low sensitivity motion detector that will trigger if someone is say walking along, but not if they are moving within a limited space (say a five foot circle). It would definitely be doable with imaging technology, but not cheap.

That would allow motion detection when people needed it, but not when they were standing still to stargaze.
-- MechE, Aug 16 2011


elf-promoting <link>
-- 8th of 7, Aug 16 2011



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