Orange street lights

[mattyoung]

Why are the bulbs in street lights orange?

[Blunderwoman]

Have'nt seen many orange street lights, but many of the older type vapour lamps produced a yellow light that was quite common, gradually newer type metal halide lamps are replacing these, which have a more neutral light

[iwbus]

Street lights use High Pressure Sodium (HPS) which produces the orange glow

[bluedolphin]

I thought that they were that orangy color to show up better in foggy situations??????

[norfolk boy]

you get more lumens for your buck

[mac309]

The darker orange lamps are low pressure sodium vapour(SOX), and the brighter white/orange lamps are high pressure sodium vapour(SON). The hotter the gas gets the brighter the light.

[Gef]

Sodium vapour lamps are orange whatever the pressure.