OK lighting types – let me tell you a little about chiropteric behaviour. First of all, contrary to popular opinion, we bats aren’t blind. So we won’t feed or roost if you put a bloody great luminaire on our patch. Secondly, if you disturb us, you’ll be had up under the Wildlife and Countryside Acts.
Bat-friendly lighting in Richmond
So bearing in mind the above, how do you illuminate a footpath that’s used by both people and bats? Well check out what Philips has done in Richmond in London, above. It has installed LED fittings that illuminate the pathway in front of a pedestrian, and turn off when he or she passes. Philips calls it a ‘moving carpet of light’.
It’s such a clever installation that Philips was rewarded with a visit from the pulchritudinous Spring Watch star Katie Humble, who came to film it for her show. Incentive enough for any man, I would have thought.
18 February 2011
Since my pic last month of Ridiculously Priced Light Sources, the Belfry has been inundated with, er, a reader’s snap of his local Savers store. Three CFLs for 50p is the offer in question.
08 February 2011
The European Commission has reclassified works by famed light artist Dan Flavin as ‘light fittings’ and not ‘art’ meaning that galleries and auction houses who handle his work will have to pay VAT at 20 per cent and not at the artwork rate of 5 per cent.
