The History of Brightness, the Ongoing Development of Solar Street Light in Russia
Before installing solar street lights in Russia widely, the history of lighting is a series of interesting facts. From the empire to the republic, from only for the wealth to all walks of life, Moscow’s street lighting system experienced an extraordinary development. Oil lamps, gas lamps, electric lamps, and finally the solar-powered street lighting. They all have parts in the beauty of Moscow today.
The Era Of LED
Solar street lights in Russia, through the LED lighting, was widely used since 2010. It helps to save electricity and creates natural colors. The system was improved by degrees and started to use a special remote-control system in 2018. The remote control can adjust the intensity, check the light voltage, and monitor the operation.
Together with Paris, London, Tokyo, and New York, Moscow is ranked as the best-lit city in the world. About 350,000 lights on architectural landmarks and parks. 80 percent of them are LED lamps, while 30 percent of them are used for functional street lighting. The service exceeds the conventional lighting, and it can save up to 30 percent of electricity. Solar street light in Russia is a prospective project to maintain the rank.
Stretched between Europe and Asia continents, Russia is one of the targeted potential markets for SDD Light. This internationally proven company can be an added option for installing solar streetlights. The varied products may fulfill the needs of LED’s vast use in Moscow and many other cities in Russia. Seeing their history of pressing the budget for lighting, the affordable price of SDD Light is a great choice to start.
Moscow’s lighting history is about both political and economic issues. The lighting was started for segmented people. It faced ups and down due to the civil war, then reached stability in the 21st century. Let’s find out the detail before the LED era.
Before the LED Era
The first oil lamps were lit in the 17th century in the reign of Peter the Great. The glass-surrounded lamps were filled with hemp oil. During that time, glass was rare and expensive.
In the mid 18th century, Moscow’s streetlights reached about 3.500 under Catherine the Great. It started to modernize the country by building houses along the pre-set red lines. Moscow’s street lighting was not switched on during the short summer night and the moonlight.
In the evening, people used candles in the windows and hanged the lamps on their fences. If they went out, they took the hand-held lanterns.
In the reign of Anna Ioannovna, the initiation of street lighting was installed using the city budget, and the maintenance was paid for by the city residents. The lamps were placed 20 meters from each other. It needed enough oil to keep the lamp burning until midnight. There were lamp inspectors to check the brightness.
In the mid 19th century, hemp oil in glass-covered lamps was replaced by alcohol-turpentine lamps, followed by kerosene lighting. The evening became brighter, and the city got more crowded.
In 1865, the Moscow City Duma – the Russian regional parliament, initiated a 30-years contract with United Kingdom’s Bouquet and Goldsmith co. for gas lamps. The company installed 3,000 gas lamps, but it didn’t run as expected. They had losses for imposing a very low price. The British expected many private consumers, but Russians were afraid of gas. Only very few people installed the gas lamps at home.
The early 20th century was the advent era of electric lighting. The streetlamps were on until 2-3 am. In 1880, Moscow was beautified with hundreds of electric lamps; a hundred of them were privately owned. The kerosene and gas lamps were extinguished completely in 1932.
Electric lights were switched on manually in the 1930s, all over Moscow. The centralized electricity switching off all lighting was created before the Great Patriotic War in 1941. The complete blackouts were introduced after the war began. After various provocations and dispatch, blackouts were canceled completely on 30 April 1945.
There was a various trial on finding the energy saving. The lamps looked ethereal until the attempt to economize during the Khruschev Thaw years. In 1954, there was a trial on installing energy-efficient luminescent lighting. They were installed on two local streets. It was unsuccessful because the lamp could not resist sub-zero temperature and dimmed out. In other trials, street lampposts were placed further from each other. Unfortunately, the number of expenses exceeded the saving.
The flashback facts are to show that these all progress went through so many decisions and the consequences as well. Arguably, the solar street light in Russia, especially in Moscow, will complete the other 20 percent of LED lamps along the streets. What do you think?