Talk of The Villages Florida

Talk of The Villages Florida (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/)

- The Villages, Florida, General Discussion (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/)

- - Ugly Lights? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/villages-florida-general-discussion-73/ugly-lights-25816/)

What is happening with the new ugly lighting throughout the Villages? The beautiful lighting and the warm ambience they created was a huge selling point to this ex-photographer. We arrived at night, and I fell in love with the place with my very first drive down Buena Vista.

When they installed the solar lights on the Villages signs I thought, "Surely they will put a warm-colored filter over the lights?" They haven't done this so far....

Now the beautiful, warm-colored Thomas Kinkaid-ish coach lights at Spanish Springs have been replaced with WalMart parking lot-ish colored lights. What's that all about? The lights are so bright I have to shield my eyes to look toward the square, and the 'daylight' color is jarring. Did the professional lighting engineers retire and leave the Villages lighting in the hands of the interns? Can they install yellow glass in the lamps, so the lighting isn't so harsh and ugly? Does anyone know what's happening to our beautiful lighting?

Please illuminate me,
Judy

Just a guess: They replaced incandescent with LED to save energy?

If they're trying to save money it's working, because the lighting sure does look cheap.

Beauty is ........

And I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I for one actually like the lighting better now. So much so that I (shhhhhh don't tell the ARC kiddies) I put them in the outside lights about my home. I did this for a twofold reason: 1) It is less expensive both in wattage and the cost of bulb replacement; 2) Now I can see where I'm going outside when it gets dark outside. I plan on putting up a couple of motion-sensor lights with the same type of bulbs on the corners of my "castle" so I might actually be able to see my back yard at night.

Jerry

The Villages, doing something to save money? You must be kidding, right?:a20:

One of my pet peevs is the abuse of proper lighting especially along highways. I was really taken with the wide use of sodium (yellowish) lighting in the infrastructure of the villages and also the excellent use of "down lighting". One of the environmental abuses in todays society is called "light pollution". In a city of this size I am able to go outside of my home here in TV and see the stars. Try that in any other city of 70,000 population. In the effort to go "green" it seems that we have forgotten the effect lighting has on mood. I see post lamps with "white" lights used from flourescent and LED lamps. This is of course is in big box stores for good lighting purposes. I personnaly like warm light or the gas light effect.
I'm sure the use of LED lighting is going to become increasingly more popular because of the cost of usage and replacement. I also am confident that the management team responsible for these decisions here in TV will look into tinted LED lights and please us all. :evil6:
Handie

I agree with you 100% Handie!
The lighting (up to this point) in the Villages has been both responsible and lovely. That's why I wondered if the professional lighting engineers had retired and the interns had taken over the job. The new lighting at Spanish Springs looks cheap, ugly, glaring and amateurish to me. If tinted LED lights are available I wonder why they didn't use them?

Jerry, just a thought... They make beautiful low-voltage landscape lighting that you can set with a timer so your motion lights don't go off at 3 am and wake the neighbors.

I'm with the OP...I also fell in love with TV at night, driving down Buena Vista Blvd. Somehow I felt transported to a place that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I know a great deal of that "feeling" was the beautiful way TV is lit up at night. The grounds look amazing at night and the gorgeous glow of the lighting enhances the beautiful landscape.

DH and I are seasonal in TV and we will be arriving in TV the end of December. After reading this thread, I'm bracing myself for being disappointed in the beauty that was TV at night.