Can your friends find your house? Can the UPS man find your house? More importantly, can emergency crews find your house? Have you ever attempted to find a specific house and realized how few houses actually have visible addresses? Emergency crews face this situation on a daily basis.

Don’t make friends, delivery services or worse, emergency crews drive up and down your street looking for your house. If your house is not ready, we have a solution for you!

This beautifully crafted address light from the folks over at Minka Lavery will provide security and peace of mind. It is neighbor friendly by containing illumination to your property. In addition, it is energy efficient and certified as an official Energy Star product.

Starry Night Lights is proud to announce its participation in the US Government’s Energy Star Lighting program. Given our focus on preserving the environment in general, and the night sky in particular, it only makes sense for us to participate in this program. Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy designed to help us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Results are already adding up. Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2006 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 25 million cars — all while saving $14 billion on their utility bills.

Energy conservation related to outdoor lighting makes incredible sense. Lighting consumes roughly 25% of all the electricity produced in the US. If we can make major strides in conserving energy while lighting, this can add up incredibly fast. On top of energy saving light bulbs and light fixtures, home and business owners are encouraged to strongly consider installing motion sensors on all their exterior lights. Motion sensors can ensure that your outdoor lights are off the vast majority of the time and yet turn them on the instant they are needed. In many cases, homeowners can reduce their outdoor lighting bill by close to 99%. This is a huge savings that adds up day after day and year after year. Given that motion sensors start around $60, you can pay for their purchase with just a few months of reduced utility bills. After that, the savings continue year after year after year.

Modern design isn’t what it was years ago. Previously, a home that was described as modern referred strictly to its looks. It had modern lines or a modern look to it. It had all the features you’d expect. Very little (if any) thought was given to efficiency. In our time of global warming, modern homes are starting to take on a much more environmentally friendly and environmentally conscientious approach. Modern homes still have the cool lines and look they’ve always had, however they now use the most energy efficient designs, appliances and features. This only makes sense as not a day goes by that we don’t hear about the destruction we’re heaping on our poor planet. Does your modern home have what it takes to be modern in this day and age? Let’s take a look…

You designed your home to be a bold statement of who you are. No detail was overlooked. Or was it? In many instances, the outdoor lights chosen for a home were almost an afterthought. ‘Oh, yeah, code requires that we put some exterior lighting in. Let’s see what’s available at the local lighting store’. If this describes your home building experience, you know how limiting that can be. Most lighting showrooms focus on interior lighting. The outdoor lights that they display are what everybody is buying. Face it, display space is expensive. No lighting store is going to be able to display everything under the sun. So, what do they do, they pick what’s been popular. Which is very likely the same as what was popular last year (since they can’t know what people will buy if they don’t display it in the first place).

Starry Night Lights offers a huge selection of night sky friendly outdoor lights for your home or business. Building something on the modern side? We have a large selection of modern outdoor lights that are as distinctive as the homes they’ll adorn. Checkout the SPJ 601-DL from SPJ Lighting. This distinctively modern outdoor light fixture is hand crafter from stainless steel for years of service. It has a closed top (hence the ‘DL’ designation) so no light will shine wastefully up into the night sky while it’s solid sides ensure that you won’t be keeping your neighbors awake at night. Night sky and neighbor friendly are two requirements that most nicer communities have or will soon be adding to their outdoor lighting codes. Even if yours doesn’t yet have one, wouldn’t it be better to make more efficient use of the light your producing? Of course, it would.

The downward facing nature of this and many other fixtures offered by Starry Night Lights is an ideal candidate for the directional light produced by LED light bulbs. LED’s can be aimed. They emit the vast majority of the light they produce in the direction the are pointed. Since this fixture ‘aims’ the light down, LED lights work quite well with this fixture to illuminate the ground beneath them (which is where you need the light in the first place). They’ll also cooperate in efforts to reduce light spill into areas that should not be lit (like the night sky or your neighbor’s bedroom).
Modern living has some new requirements that earlier generations rarely if ever had to think of. Energy efficient light bulbs are an easy to meet some of these new ‘lifestyle guidelines’. These will consume far less energy thereby generating far less global warming / green house gases. They’ll also save you a considerable sum of money over their life spans. Energy efficient is typically a win-win situation.

Outdoor lighting is important for a lot of homeowners. If you prefer readily available lighting around the clock, motion detecting lighting may be the perfect option for you. Motion detecting lights have many benefits, most importantly they save energy and money! They also allow you to safely enter your property at night time with out keeping your lights on at all times. Although lighting has never been proven to play a role in crime prevention, many people think that by keeping their lights on all night long, they are somehow safer. Think about this though, a thief is less likely to rob you if a light suddenly illuminates his face as the approaches your home, thinking that he has been caught in the act. A homeowner who leaves their lights on a dusk to dawn type timer is no safer than if he left them off all night, yet with an average of 5 outdoor lights at 100 watts, is wasting nearly 2.2 million watts of electricity per year. This equals 2200 kilowatt hours which when multiplied by the national average of 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour comes to about $200 per year. If these same lights were put on a motion sensor, which were tripped an average of 4 times each night and timed for 3 minutes after sensed, would average about 1.095 killowatt hours per year. The savings alone is undeniable but the reduced amount of light pollution and light trespass are just as significant. Starry Night Lights even has a couple of sensors that work with your existing lights or any of our dark sky certified lights for a even better combination of outdoor lighting. The RAB Smart Lantern can be added to existing circuits of up to 250 watts of compact fluorescent lighting or 500 watts of incandescent lighting. For an even lower wattage of 180 Watts, the RAB SMS 500 can provide an energy efficient motion light that will save you even more money. There are no excuses! Motion sensored lighting just makes sense!

The sparkling lights of Salt Lake City are a spectacular site as you come down the canyon from a day of skiing in the Rocky Mountains. As the stars twinkle overhead at 8000 feet of elevation the last thing on your mind is how would I feel if the stars were invisible, because there they are as clear as day. But as you make your descent into Salt Lake City, you lose sight of more and more stars. At 6000 feet the only stars visible are the ones to the left and the right and the ones in your rear view mirror suspended above the mountains behind you. At 4000 feet you are on the bench of the mountain so if you look up to the east there are stars visible but they seem miles away. As you approach the interstate you look up and can see one star, maybe two but you can’t tell if it is actually a star or an airplane so you catch yourself second guessing yourself. Most of us take the night sky for granted until we find ourselves driving through the country or camping in the woods where the only light is the light of our campfires and suddenly we look up and discover that we have been missing out on a nightly display that is not visible from the cities will dwell in. Why can’t we see the stars from the city?

Light Pollution is Improperly controlled light that is emitted into the air contributing to light trespass and sky glow. It wastes energy, money and disrupts natural ecological cycles. Light pollution has been linked to asthma, sleeping disorders and global warming. Although its effects on humans and ecosystems have yet to be fully analyzed, its obvious wastefulness and green house gas emissions that are produced to illuminate the city are clearly consequences.

Lighting consumes approximately one fourth of all energy consumed in the world. America obviously is one of the bigger consumers of energy as seen on the Earth at Night Map published by NASA. The life cycle has existed for billions of years on cycles of day and night, light and dark. This cycle has been interrupted by the 24 hour phenomenon that has taken over America. It has disrupted animal navigation, mating habits and predator-prey relationships. Vegetation that is nocturnal such as night blooming flowers are in danger of becoming extinct due to excessive light illuminating the sky when it is supposed to be dark. In Florida, hatchling sea turtles and migrating birds have become a growing concern due to their dependency on light to navigate their habitual journeys. Sea turtles usually aim for the brightest light on the horizon which used to be the rising sun but instead is now the luminous lights of Miami. This disorientation due to sky glow is causing the deaths of many migrating birds and hatchling sea turtles every year.

Many people are just beginning to realize that they are contributing to Global Warming. However, they are unaware how simple it is to make a difference. Because it is impossible to get rid of all reckless light sources and invest in dark- sky friendly and energy efficient lighting all around the world as quickly as it would be necessary to reverse the effects, the initial change has to start with in mind of the individual. The smallest accomplishment is to acknowledge that light pollution is a problem and alternative sources of illumination can be obtained. You can stop contributing to light pollution by using light sources that are of minimal essential intensity and improving light fixtures so that light distribution is directed where necessary and not trespassing where it is unwanted. Using compact fluorescent or night sky-friendly and energy efficient light bulbs will reduce light pollution and green house emissions and save money on your energy bill.

Many communities have requirements that homes and businesses display their addresses clearly and visibly on the fronts of their buildings. There are a number of reasons for this with aiding police, fire and rescue personal at the top of the list. A great way to meet this requirement is with address lights. These ensure that in an emergency, your address will be quickly and accurately determined. Of course, the lights you choose for this task should be night sky friendly, as should all of your lights. There are a number of reasons why this should be so. First up, your address lights should meet their primary objective, to make your address clearly visible. They should do so without causing glare, light trespass or contributing to sky glow. If your address lights are violating any of these stipulations, you’re helping yourself at the expense of your neighbors and this just isn’t right. Pictured here is a neighbor friendly address light from the folks at Minka Lavery. Notice how the light coming out of this fixture is all aimed down. Therein lies the key. Put the light where you need it, and only where you need it.

Note that I said your address lights as well all of your lights. In many cases, people pay so little attention to visibility that they don’t realize that the lights they’ve installed are actually reducing visibility. If you think I’m off base, try this. Go outside after dark. Can you see the numbers on the front of your house? Or, as is more typically the case, are they lost in the glare of your overly bright, minimally controlled outdoor lights? If you’re like many, this may be a wakeup call. Your outdoor lighting, planned to help you see at night actually reduce your ability to do so. This is because most people purchase outdoor lighting with a focus on how they’ll look by day, not how they’ll perform by night. Don’t do the same with your address lights. Make sure that your address lights shine light down onto your numbers. Make sure that they don’t contribute to glare, light trespass or sky glow as these are the most noticeable aspects of light pollution. Finally, make sure that you use the minimum amount of light as well as energy to accomplish this goal. If you can cover all these bases, you’ve come up with an address lighting solution that does not have more costs than benefits.

With all the interest in green building these days, its seems odd to me that many people don’t realize that night sky friendly outdoor lighting is a very green technology. Night sky friendly lighting principles are by their very nature green building techniques. With an emphasis on using light only when and where its needed, and only in the amounts needed night sky friendly should be a hit with the green building crowd. Throw in lighting control (via night sky friendly full cutoff designs) and you’re touching on all bases. Lets look at some of the green benefits of night sky friendly outdoor lighting.

By lighting only when, where and as brightly as is absolutely necessary, you’re consuming far less energy than you might otherwise. This saves you money and allows you to consume far less energy. Additionally, by using less energy, you’re reducing your contribution of green house gases to the environment.

By using only full cutoff (night sky friendly) outdoor lights, you’re also making the most efficient use of the light your fixture is generating. Think of it this way. If you trying to achieve a certain number of foot candles on the ground and half the light is going up into the night sky (as is the case with many non-friendly fixtures), you have to generate twice as much light for a given situation. Conversely, by putting all the light where its needed you can cut the wattage of your bulbs in half. This combines with lower lighting levels and frequency to dramatically reduce your energy consumption. Additionally, by not blinding people with your lights, they’ll actually be able to see better than if you used significantly more light.

If you must leave your lights on for extended periods (not generally recommended), you should make use of the most energy efficient bulbs available. For residential applications, this typically means compact fluorescent. CF bulbs consume about 1/4 the energy of a typical incandescent bulb for a given illumination level. This is a significant savings on all fronts (money, energy, emissions). If you’re not yet making use of compact fluorescent bulbs, you should do so immediately.

If you’re more flexible in your lighting needs and usage, you should consider making use of motion sensors. These can be aimed to detect activity across a variable range of targets. At my home, I’m able to use one motion sensor to detect people coming down the stairs from the front door, as well as cars coming up the driveway. Because of this, my exterior lights are off about 99% of the time. Talk about savings. The most efficient lights are without a doubt those that are on the least. Motion detectors are relatively inexpensive to buy and install yet the savings they produce can be quite significant. Its fairly safe to say that you’ll be able to recoup these costs with the first months worth of savings. After that, you’ll find yourself way ahead of the game.
Another green build aspect of night sky friendly lights, over and above the reduction of light pollution is a greatly reduced impact on wildlife. Many species struggle to survive in the never ending day created by our artificial lighting. Their entire schedules are thrown out of whack. Sleep schedules, hunting & foraging schedules are all dramatically impacted. Some animals are better able to deal with change than others. Sea turtles and light pollution simply don’t mix. All species of sea turtles native to Florida waters are either threatened or endangered.

Finally, our own health seems to be at risk. A number of recent medical studies have concluded that light pollution is a significant threat to human health. Your bodies internal clock is disrupted by a bright sleeping area. A number of cancers are known to thrive under these conditions.

For all the reasons that light pollution should be brought under control, it is amazingly frustrating to watch it to continue to spread. I like to think of night skies as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. If you live under a star filled sky, your environment must be in pretty decent shape. Conversely, if you can’t see stars in the sky where you live, your community is obviously not being a good environmental steward. Do the skies above your home look like the image above? They should.

Starry Night Lights is excited to add Magnaray International to its stable of night sky friendly outdoor lighting solutions. Magnaray is a leader in fluorescent lighting solutions. Fluorescent lights, as you’re likely well aware, are an incredibly energy efficient and long lasting lighting solution… with 4x the efficiency of incandescent lights and longer life than metal halide.

Magnaray International is based out of sunny, Brandenton Florida, where for almost 40 years they have produced a growing line of high quality, energy efficient fluorescent light fixtures. All Magnaray products come with a 5 year warranty for workmanship and material defects so you can rest assured that your purchase will provide you with a large return on your investment.