I would love to see this one make it to court. Or better yet, Judge Judy 

I would love to see that. I bet she will say that is a dum law too.

I would love to see this one make it to court. Or better yet, Judge Judy 

Judge Judy, brilliant , I watch her every night, this law is just stupid, first they tell you your not allowed to have MV, THEN they say dusk-til-dawn lighting on houses not ok either!!!!

I hope this law wasn`t enforced for you guys in the US, its like (...) bullying, if you pay your electric bill, whats it got to do with anyone else what type of lamp you use?
Yes, I can understand the `light spill` bit, but to say you can`t have any lighting on all night is just wrong.

I hope no one comes up with anything similar in the UK, (don`t think they would like my 250watt HPS on all night! ), not that I would be willing to switch it off anyway.

This one is allready beyond energy concerns. It is basically limiting your right to do what you want on your territory

In this case, an argument can be tht it limits your right to safety or security - the whole night lights are meant exactly for that

True, whats the point in buying a `yard light`, then told you can`t use it in your yard!!!!

You can use it on a switch... but WTF ARE YOU TELLING ME WHAT TO DO ?

Hahahhaha... I like reading these old threads. (Searched for San Diego lighting and this came up).

What amuses me is the child-like attitude of some: "Niaw you can't tell me what to do."

Ever wake up to go out while operating a dusk-to-dawn MV light to: Take out the garbage? Start the car to go to work? Rake or water your lawn? ..at 1 or 3 am?? Why is the light on? Crime?

We ARE childlike when it comes to consumption. We are so self-centered that we never think we may we imposing higher-costs or short-falls to others, including to other creatures on this small planet. We NEED experts telling us what to do. If it weren't for limits to consumption we would be in much more trouble than we are at 2016.

None of those rules are made for your noble considerations, except as excuse to justify them. We are not better to nature now than we been before those bills passed, and in many places we are much worse, even within the lighting field. We are mainly worse because "being green" shifted from using what we've got economically and responsibly, to mindlessly using "green products" that are advertised as green in 1 parameter while ruining Earth in 10 others. We traded our freedom to choose and use products and the responsibility to use them right, for the convenience of being under Imperius curse of those "experts"

Want to be good to nature, then choose suitable lighting for the place of installation. Saying that in the whole state of Arizona there is no single location where a bucket light is the suitable lighting type, which this bill says, is ridiculous

It would be a nightmare if bucket lights were banned here!

We're intelligent enough here at LG to see that commercializing or promoting "green products" & "green attitutes" is nothing more than profit making companies or motivated interests taking advantage of our gullible nature.

It's up to your"self" to decide what to do in order to preserve, prevent, delay, repair or protect environmental systems not a governmental body. I'm thinking like a Native American now.

When I see rules restricting lamps or imposed on lighting, I almost always say: Duhh.

@lights*plus

While you make some good points, I'm a little confused because you're saying, "We NEED experts telling us what to do." and then saying, "It's up to your"self" to decide what to do in order to preserve...". Point is, I'm very concerned about how this Earth will continue to put up with our increasing demand for resources as well. I also realize LED technology, for example, may be the smartest idea for the future as long as it continues to improve. However, legislation always seems to turn out clumsy.

For example, the huge push for CFL,s has probably done far more damage to the environment than incandescent. While carbon may have been reduced from power plants, we now have thousands of tons of dead CFL's in landfills leaching toxic materials into the ground for decades to come, not to mention the demand for rare earth elements for the circuit board ballast and rare phosphors which also destroys the environment via mining.

Aside from all of that, I think this thread was particularly about banning mercury vapor and the political rhetoric of using 'light pollution' as justification for such banning. Mercury vapor, along with low pressure sodium are the easiest to filter for astronomy because of the limited spectra. Furthermore, while MV is clearly on the way out, it's easy to forget the studies that have shown our 'night vision' is more effective under the shorter wavelengths of MV. Theoretically, if studies were done to promote reduced mercury vapor wattage and proper maintenance back in the 70's, instead of promoting HPS as more efficient and creating glare bombs with orange light that doesn't work with our night vision, we may have saved energy in a better way.

Ever wake up to go out while operating a dusk-to-dawn MV light to: Take out the garbage? Start the car to go to work? Rake or water your lawn? ..at 1 or 3 am?? Why is the light on? Crime?

Incidentally, while I normally don't keep my MV on all night, the shorter daylight hours in winter months do leave me doing many activities in the dark and the light is rather pleasant to have, at least for me.

old thread but both my and my grandparent's house have dusk->dawn lighting and i see it as a security measure, not just for convenience.  these stupid laws are probably in most cases non enforced and probably you could install one with no problem.  tired of the gov trying to tell us what kind of lighting we can use for something like reducing sky lighting.  i think if this were enforced here i would get the biggest GLS bulb i could find (300-500 watts) and have 2 or 3 on in fixtures around the property instead just to spite them.

get rid of the requirement for flag lighting if you want to reduce some sky illumination.  theres several car dealerships in local towns that have a tall flagpole that have 400w MH shining straight up.  the one has a HUGE flag and they have 2 1000w MH pointed up at it.  its kind of a dumb old tradition and maybe they need to look at that before banning lighting with a legitimate use rather than an old (frankly stupid) tradition

Not my intention to offend anyone; need to go on record to say that I DESPISE dusk-to-dawn lighting.

Where did it come from? Street-lighting? The high crime rates of the 70s & 80s? Do we have to hold on to ways of the past so dearly? Is it my fault you keep cash, or worthless jewels under your pillow? Shouldn't you turn off your TV that keeps blasting 24 hour news items on every crap happening accross the globe let alone your local community?

I have no problems with lighting. We need it. I routinely use 800 watts of HID for my citrus from 4 to 9pm from October through March. I have a fondness for metal-halide systems. Everyone needs a period of serene darkness to heal, let the bugs settle down, a chance to see the stars. Being un-yielding w/dusk-to-dawn lighting is selfish. No it's childish.

Don't need to qualify my sentenses with "often", "sometimes", "rarely" or "always"..as I'm not an either-or (this way, not that way) type of person. We sometimes do need officials telling us children what's allowed, what is bad and what is good for us.

One reason dusk to dawn lighting exists because of the need for long run times for HID lamps. as each start reduces life. With LED, motion activated lighting makes sense, but motion sensors have a few problems that may make it a deal breaker.
And then there's manually switched lighting, that's what we use, and it can be very handy or very frustrating.
There's even more high tech methods of controlling lighting, like astronomical wall switches.
It's confusing where this conversation is going, and there isn't much I can add, except for a few technical details.

Not my intention to offend anyone; need to go on record to say that I DESPISE dusk-to-dawn lighting.

Where did it come from? Street-lighting? The high crime rates of the 70s & 80s? Do we have to hold on to ways of the past so dearly? Is it my fault you keep cash, or worthless jewels under your pillow? Shouldn't you turn off your TV that keeps blasting 24 hour news items on every crap happening accross the globe let alone your local community?

I have no problems with lighting. We need it. I routinely use 800 watts of HID for my citrus from 4 to 9pm from October through March. I have a fondness for metal-halide systems. Everyone needs a period of serene darkness to heal, let the bugs settle down, a chance to see the stars. Being un-yielding w/dusk-to-dawn lighting is selfish. No it's childish.

Don't need to qualify my sentenses with "often", "sometimes", "rarely" or "always"..as I'm not an either-or (this way, not that way) type of person. We sometimes do need officials telling us children what's allowed, what is bad and what is good for us.

not sure where you live, but around here a dark house may as well have a large target on it inviting theft.  i have a 175w NEMA head w/ PC as well as a 100w equivalent LED bulb in a fixture over my barn's entry on a dusk to dawn timer and a 60w equivalent lamp over the barn's sliding door on a timer also.

my grandparents house has a 100w MH yardblaster on a PC and a 2 lamp fixture on a timer with 2 60w equivalent LED bulbs on one barn  and a 35w HPS wallpack w/PC on the other barn and a 60w equivalent LED bulb in a fixture on the house that stays on overnight.  no theres not a lot of the lawn that is dark at night but you can be sure that either place is less vulnerable than the ones that have no lighting whatsoever.  i live less than 10 miles south of Saginaw, Mi which has a shooting every week as well as multiple break in's.  we had someone down the road get robbed because the perp could hide in the dark behind the house that wasnt lit.  my grandparents live 18 miles N-E of lansing, Mi which is also a S**Thole and they have a neighbor that has a teenage son that likes to snoop and broke into the barn with the 35w wallpack on it before the wallpack was there.  thats what prompted us to install it.  no problems since then, he goes to the less well lit neighbors now.

not saying your point is wrong, just there are certain situations that require the overnight light.