Safe Bulb to Solve Light Pollution of Insects

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According to recent research, light pollution now affects a quarter of the planet’s land surface. The falling cost of lighting and the expansion of human infrastructure are to blame. Human illumination is rising in range and intensity by approximately 2% every year. Biologists from the University of Exeter are comparing the problem to climate change. They say that artificial light should be treated like any other type of pollution because its impact on the natural world causes severe systemic disruptions. A broad range of species are suffering interruptions in their activity patterns, breeding cycles, hormone levels, and falling vulnerable to predators. Light pollution is being described as the bringer of the insect apocalypse because it’s causing rapid declines in insect populations. Many bugs fly to the light and burn to death on a hot bulb. The Exeter biologists gathered 126 research papers relating to artificial light and nature to assess the impact and wrote a report on their analysis. They found that all the animal species reported on had reduced melatonin levels – a sleep-regulating hormone – caused by artificial light at night. All animals suffered from disturbing behavioral patterns as well. The research concluded by stating, “solving the lighting problem is much easier than the climate crisis, and it would save money rather than cost money. All people have to do is use fewer lights – and when they do, they’ll save money and lower their carbon footprint.”

This is the next big problem for energy companies because the more conservationists push this problem like bird collisions on wind turbines and other problems, it will force regulation on power minimization which will lower demand for energy providers. 

This project is about building a new system that can give protection for insects and bugs from flying into street light and burning to death on the hot bulb. This is done by building a street light cover that can absorb the majority of the heat generated by the hot bulb while fully allowing the light to pass through. This can be achieved using vacuum technology. Meaning, in this mechanism there are two fully transparent glasses and in between them there is a vacuum. As the light generated by the hot bulb starts to be functional it reaches the first fully transparent glass and the majority of the heat is absorbed at this stage because the inner glass is attached with the pole for heat exchange. The major role of the vacuum is to contain the heat from getting out in to the second fully transparent glass. This way the second layer of the fully transparent glass will have low surface temperature while the heat is made to be dissipated in the pole via the heat exchange.

This will solve the problem mentioned above while perfectly preserving demand for street lights.

https://hackaday.io/project/176780-safe-bulb-to-solve-light-pollution-of-insects

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Anteneh Gashaw
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Software used for this entry:
    Catia V5
  • Patent status:
    pending