On Ole Svendsens Vej in Østerby in Skagen, the residents had had enough. The street’s old Albertslund street lights had been removed and replaced with what was described as an ‘ugly plastic lamp’.

On top of this, LED bulbs with a colour temperature of 4000 Kelvin had been chosen for the new lamps – something that resulted in a harsh lights that annoyed the residents. The dissatisfied residents and the By og Land Skagen community group therefore contacted Louis Poulsen to ask whether it would be possible to find a solution allowing the street to retain its old Albertslund Posts.

For anyone who has not yet had the pleasure of visiting Østerby, expect a small town characterised by narrow streets where distinctive small yellow houses with fine red tiled roofs stand side by side. For many years, in the evenings, the attractive streets have been lit by the classic Albertslund Mini street light by Louis Poulsen, which is best known as the Albertslund Post.

But to save energy, the old lamps were replaced with new street lights. This move was not popular among the locals.

The residents complained about the sharp and cold light that shone directly into their living rooms and bedrooms. The residents were very unhappy about losing the old lamps, whose design and golden light fit so perfectly into the area.

Retrofitting means that the light source life cycle goes from 24,000 hours to more than 100,000. Energy usage will fall from 85W to 34W and only 20W at night. This should be seen in light of the fact that the new lamps that had been put in as replacements only provided a reduction in energy usage of 50W. We were also able to preserve the golden light with a significant and visible boost of the colour rendering from Ra20 to Ra65.

Ole Bjerggaard, Lighting consultant at Louis Poulsen