New DarkSky regulations may just be coming to a town near you. Aimed at minimizing the disruption caused to nocturnal species from artificial lighting, the new regulations introduce guidelines for type of fixtures, bulbs, shielding rules, brightness levels, use of timers and color temperature requirements to ensure projects are DarkSky Approved.
One example of the new lighting regulations being enforced by the Zoning & Planning board is the Town of Greenwich Connecticut. The new lighting rules and guidelines went into effect on March 27, 2024 for residential zoning, neighborhood districts, industrial and business zones. Now, Greenwich holds the distinction of being Connecticut’s first “Lights Out Community.”
How is this going to affect you as an integrator? And what does DarkSky mean anyways? Let’s look into it.
DarkSky International is an global organization aimed at protecting communities and species of nocturnal animals from the harmful effects of light pollution through a mix of outreach, advocacy, and conservation. The organization has 2000+ volunteer advocates in 70+ chapters across 30+ countries all working to make the night sky a little bit darker.
The reason for the drastic lighting regulations unfolding in Connecticut are basically two fold:
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
Light pollution disrupts the ecosystem, migratory birds and changes the feeding ground of nocturnal animals & sends wasted energy into space hence making it hard to see the dark sky in the evening.
Artificial blue light in the evening can negatively affect humans by disrupting our circadian rhythm and melatonin, increasing risks for obesity, depression, sleep disorders, diabetes, breast cancer and more.
Chances are, plenty of integrators are already acquainted with the organization, as many communities across the United States already have DarkSky regulations in place to ensure that all outdoor lighting projects are approved by the organization.
Just to give you an example of some of the additional restrictions being added, Landscape and Building Façade uplighting are no longer being allowed on residential projects.
This means that the only acceptable landscape lighting being approved by the town of Greenwich are path lights and moon lighting. With that being said, the fixtures are not to exceed 525 lumens and must be shielded and directed for its intended purpose.
Also any existing uplighting will be considered non-conforming to the new regulations and will have to be removed or turned off permanently.
The goal is to make sure that as little light escapes into the upper atmosphere (as that’s the stuff that causes light pollution). The town also wants to avoid using lights that are either unnecessarily bright or blue, as these are what can cause circadian disruption in nocturnal animal species, as well as humans.
Under the new DarkSky regulations introduced in Connecticut, the following questions will be needed to be answered when making an application to the Zoning & Planning board.
Is my lighting useful ?
Is my lighting targeted ?
Is my lighting at low Level ?
Is my lighting controlled ?
Is my lighting warm colored ?
If you are not prepared with answers in your submission, you will be rejected in your landscape lighting application.
To make sure your outdoor lighting projects are DarkSky Approved, I would highly suggest following today’s best practices for daytime and nighttime lighting design.
Utilize tunable lighting fixtures combined with home automated systems that will adapt to the time of day. “Cool” appearing light should be displayed while the sun is up, whereas at night, it should lower CCT to remove exposure to blue-rich light that will disrupt melatonin production.
As a rule of thumb, you should not exceed 3000K in your evening lighting design.
It will also be mandatory to design all your lighting fixtures by having separate zones for all uplights, path lights and moon lighting fixtures. This will protect you when the zoning regulations change in your area.
As part of being DarkSky Approved, you will be mandated to make sure that all uplighting fixtures will be turned off during the early evening hours while the path and down lights can remain to illuminate for a few hours longer in the evening. Setting up separate zones for control allow clients to continue using parts of the system into the night.
Otherwise, if you do not incorporate this type of landscape lighting design, then your clients will be forced to turn off all their lighting due to being non-compliant. At that point they might even demand you reimburse them of what they paid you for the lighting installation.
If you think about it, a lot of dark sky regulations follow circadian lighting practices. Just like us, animals need bright light to support a healthy circadian rhythm. So, if you’re already practicing circadian lighting or human-centric lighting, you’re already halfway to being DarkSky Approved.
Attilio Petroni is a lighting designer who focuses on Human Centric Lighting and is also a member of DarkSky International.
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