Less-intrusive emergency lighting?

[Blinded]

Hello. The block of flats next door has just had its exterior lights replaced to make them fire safety compliant, so they are on from dusk to dawn and some of them need to be maintained. They are horribly over-bright bulkhead discs which shine straight outwards rather than downwards onto the walkways, and they pollute my garden with a lot of light.

I have scoured the internet looking for outdoor photocell maintained wall-mounted lights that actually shine downwards and have been surprised to find virtually nothing. Are the "eyelid" ones any better? I don't believe they are, because they're just as flat, with a lot of vertical lens. This sort of thing is probably going to be less awful as it has more lens facing downwards, but again, lots of it faces outwards and it's vastly overpowered. Another option might be to have external maintained lighting kits on non-emergency fittings, but that's an extra ugly box, and is going to have to be robust, as the wall is south-facing and gets roasted. Another option might be to screw sheets of metal to the wall to act as cowls, but that's not great either.

One thing they might be able to do is move the left hand light in the picture round the corner so it's not facing straight towards me. Perhaps they could also move the middle one (with its emergency plastic cowling which has fallen off!) to the left, to take up the loss of illumination on that section of walkway? The right hand one is so close to me because the previous fitting was put there in the mistaken belief that it would shine round the corner for security reasons. (It is not an access route.)

Any suggestions welcome. Many thanks.

 

[Murdoch]

You need to address your concerns to the management company of the building, in writing and see how they respond

 

[Blinded]

I'm already in discussions with one of the residents, who is sympathetic and talking to others and has notified the management company. I was researching alternative lighting arrangements in the hope that I would have something to offer when I'm told it's not possible to improve things.

 

[Murdoch]

I'm already in discussions with one of the residents, who is sympathetic and talking to others and has notified the management company. I was researching alternative lighting arrangements in the hope that I would have something to offer when I'm told it's not possible to improve things.

there are different ways that they could improve this and the contractor involved will have answers.

 If the management company don’t do anything then try your local councils environment department

 

[Blinded]

I hope so - the contractor was both under the impression that the installation was to provide illumination for the garden (presumably in addition to the fire escape aspect) and confused as to what black tape on the lenses of some of the old lights was for, so doesn't seem to have much awareness of the issue of light pollution. Mustn't pre-judge though!

 

[binky]

 I'm told it's not possible to improve things.

 improving things is always possible, it's just how much it costs  :^O

 

[binky]

The light over the door is in an awful position. But what could be done is put something like these eyelid fittings in, but dropping down the wall to about 4ft off the ground / path. Now the existing positions could be fitted with standard Emergency bulkheads, or it may be possible to use the existing lights with the switch live disconnected (ie the only work if there's an electrical failure). 

 

[Geoff1946]

Be OK if it's in a private and secure place, but I think things tend to be mounted high to make vandalism more difficult. 

Putting fittings 4 feet off the ground is just asking for some moron to see if they can kick so high.  

 

[binky]

Be OK if it's in a private and secure place, but I think things tend to be mounted high to make vandalism more difficult. 

Putting fittings 4 feet off the ground is just asking for some moron to see if they can kick so high.  

Bollards - not being rude but couldn't resist. The real answer to the lighting is bollards along the path, but that gets expensive of course. I've worked on various communal sites where bollards are fitted, and no one seems to bother those, but I take your point about out of reach. I've never really seen vandalism of lights on blocks of flats, and I've worked in some pretty rough areas. The possible answer would be emergency bulkheads combined wth these then