"The Smart Street Light"
This project is the culmination of work done over 11 years, "The Smart Street Light" was an idea that could help minimize energy use. Originally thought up for the New York State Invention Convention a middle school competition the idea gained school, region, and state wide recognition. The idea was simple use and led sensor based at the bottom of one streetlight and once broken it would turn on the next light and so on. Coming from a rural area of New York I first hand saw how much energy was wasted on having streetlights run all night. Over time and development I came to realize the idea was not so simple. Using the idea for my technical communications capstone my group and I quickly diverged into marketing, cost estimations, and further engineering.
Project Features:
How it Works:
1. First a car drives over a pressure sensor located a few feet in front of a streetlight.
2. Once the pressure sensor reads a weight greater then 1000 pounds the LED sensor at the base of the
street light is turned on.
3. Once a car breaks the LED barrier the following streetlight turns on for a predetermined time based on a
formula taking into account speed limit and distance. This will happen all the way down the road you are
driving on.
4. For sidewalks the concept is a little different. To turn on the next streetlight one just hits a button at the
bottom of a street light to turn the next one. The previous one will stay on until the next button is hit
leaving two (the current one and the next one) as always on. If the next button is not pressed the light
will time out after a predetermined time.
System Overview:
1. Using a photo-voltaic panel located on top of the streetlight and a storage container at the bottom of
each streetlight energy can be produced on site and help to reduce how much fossil fuel electricity
we use.
2. The idea can be either produced new or able to retrofit the current lighting system. The only additions
would be the LED sensor, pressure pad, and computer system, the PV cell is optional.
3. The system itself would be rather inexpensive to implement, with refining the idea the benefits in the
long run outweigh the current investment.