CRL Illumination Engineering

The Citizens for Responsible Lighting strives to assist and educate others to help reform obtrusive outdoor lighting practices that encroach on others and degrade Nature's quality of the night. We disseminate access to sound engineering and design practices of the Illuminating Engineering Society, the CIE, and also acknowledge virtues expressed by the International Dark-Sky Association as well as making helpful information available from luminaire and light measurement equipment manufacturers.

"The energy demand resulting from wasteful, misdirected, unnecessary and inefficient outdoor lighting requires power plants to produce more electricity, causing more pollution, which in turn creates widespread negative effects for the environment and public health. It is estimated that 6 million tons of coal are used every year to meet the demand of excessive lighting fixtures. Misdirected uplighting alone costs the nation's power consumers an estimated $4.5 billion a year in energy bills." - ©2003 Environmental Advocates of New York

In this section we strive to provide you with information about the art and science of outdoor lighting design and applications. Study the Glossary well because the information within will help you to understand and speak with professional experts in the field of lighting design when you express your concerns. It always helps to speak the same language and also understand the vocabulary.

Many good resources are available in the CRL Links pages also, so be sure to visit them often. This web site is an active work in progress as we discover more information that is available on the Internet and as we develop publications for sale at reasonable prices.

Good engineering practice and copious understanding of human vision mixed with compassion are the secrets to solving light pollution and the obtrusive outdoor lighting so prevalent in our society today. Shielding is not rocket science, but certain precautions should be taken to assure adequate venting is allowed so overheating of the fixture will not be a problem that may reduce lamp and ballast life as well as become a potential fire hazard. The optimum solution is to purchase well designed full cutoff luminaires rather than shielding existing ones.

Light is something those of us who are fortunate enough to have healthy vision take for granted from the moment we are born. Understanding light and how it affects human vision and the environment as a whole is an extremely complex idiom unique unto itself. Scientific research by biologists and zoologists are finding more evidence unnatural light on numerous organizms can impose detrimental consequences for their continued good health and survival.

To gain a better understanding on how light is quantified and measured visit the following web site for an outstanding presentation titled, "Photometry for Traffic Engineers." This presentation provides a very comprehensive description including much of what any professional lighting designer needs to undertand before they can master the art and science of applying low impact outdoor lighting effectively.