A simple solution to uplighting
By Mike Scott
Jack, an Ivins resident, attended a presentation by the Ivins Night Sky Initiative at Red Mountain Resort in April and was energized by what he learned about the problems created by unnecessary light pollution caused by uplighting.
Artificial light at night not only impairs our view of the night sky but also adversely affects our environment, safety, energy consumption, and health.
So Jack went home and modified his outdoor sconces on his house.
The wall sconces on the outside of his house, like so many others, aimed light both up and down. When he built the home, there wasn’t an uplighting restriction for this type of lighting.
They did not shine light out horizontally, so they did not affect the neighbors. But the uplighting created unnecessary skyglow.
Jack’s simple solution was to put a Dixie cup inside the sconce on top of the light source, blocking the uplighting completely. Problem solved. So now there’s an alternate story to explain why this area is called “Dixie.”
Now all the light was directed down with none of it wasted. Plus, the white interior of the Dixie cup made the downlighting even brighter … too bright.
So Jack replaced the 40-watt equivalent LEDs with 25-watt equivalent LEDs in all his sconces. That reduced his lumen output by almost 40 percent. Granted, these sconces don’t consume a lot of energy. This change saves Jack about $30 to $40 a year. It’s not a lot, but every bit helps.
If you have you made changes to your own outdoor lighting to make it more “night sky friendly,” The Ivins Night Sky Initiative would like to know about it. You can email them at info@ivinsnightsky.org or visit ivinsnightsky.org for more information and other creative lighting solutions.
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