Night survey
We come after dark, photograph every outdoor light, measure sky brightness with a sky quality meter and light levels at your boundary. You get a written survey with photos within 7 days.
Services
Survey, plan, fit. Then we measure again.
Each step has a fixed price. Most people book the survey first and decide the rest once they have seen it.
Lighting plan
Which fittings to keep, re-aim, shield or replace, where each one goes, how bright, what colour and when it switches off. A drawn plan and a parts list any electrician can price.
Fitting and re-aiming
Our electrician does the work: new heads, shields, timers and motion sensors. Most farms take a day. We come back after dark and measure again.
Dark Sky Place support
For parishes and estates working towards a DarkSky International designation: a lighting inventory, a lighting management plan and a year of sky readings.
Where your sky sits
Nine classes of night.
John E. Bortle published his nine-level dark-sky scale in Sky & Telescope in February 2001. Class 1 is the darkest sky on Earth, class 9 an inner city. Most of rural Northumberland sits at 2 to 4. The pictures below are the same field drawn under each class.
14,610 stars21.99
24,460 stars21.93
34,160 stars21.80
42,750 stars21.10
51,260 stars20.00
6650 stars19.20
7400 stars18.65
8260 stars18.20
9150 stars17.60
Star counts are naked-eye estimates from each sky reading (mag/arcsec²), for a clear moonless night with dark-adapted eyes.
Prices include VAT and survey travel within 40 miles of Hexham. Fitting is quoted fixed before any work starts.
Home
A house, up to 6 lights
£180£620survey and plantypical, fitted
- Night survey
- Plan with parts list
- Advice on planning conditions
Farm and business
Yards and premises, up to 20 lights
£540£2,400survey and plantypical, fitted
- Night survey with boundary readings
- Plan, timers and sensors
- Re-measure after the work
Campsite and venue
Guest paths and buildings, up to 50 lights
£1,250£5,800survey and plantypical, fitted
- Survey on a busy night
- Path, pitch and building plan
- Wording for your listing
- Re-measure after the work
Parish and estate
Streetlights and estates
£2,900Quotedsurvey and planwith the council or contractor
- Lamp inventory
- Lighting management plan
- A year of sky readings
- Dark Sky Place paperwork
What we will not do.
- Sell you fittings we get commission on.We name the parts; you buy them where you like.
- Leave a path unlit to make a sky darker.Safety comes first on every plan.
- Promise a number of stars.Weather, moon and your neighbours all count. We promise the readings, before and after.
Common questions
Safety, cost, planning and what happens on the night. If yours is not here, ring Ruth on 01632 960 418.
What people ask before we come out.
Yes. We light where people walk and work, at the level the job needs. Glare is what makes a yard hard to see in: with the bright source shielded, your eyes can see past the pool of light to the gate.
Often not. On most surveys a third or more of the fittings can stay, re-aimed, shielded or with a warmer lamp.
It is the colour temperature of the light. Lower numbers look warmer. DarkSky International recommends 3000 K or lower for outdoor light; we usually fit 2700 K, and amber 2200 K on paths.
Usually by a lot, because the new lights are dimmer and switch off when nobody is out. High Shield Farm went from about 1,312 kWh a year to about 68.
Not to replace lights on a house in most cases, but some planning permissions for barns, holiday lets and campsites carry lighting conditions. We check yours before we draw the plan.
Northumberland, the Scottish Borders, north Cumbria and County Durham. Survey travel is included within 40 miles of Hexham.
Two of us arrive about an hour after sunset and stay around two hours. We need to switch every light on and off once, so someone has to be home.