Light pollution on Bridges

[pignutpilot]

With the growing number of gadgets taking up space on bridges, are there currently any rules in place with regards to lights levels on bridges?

It is one thing that can be really irritating that many gadgets with lights are fitted with a poor, or no dimmer function meaning there is a nightly ritual of putting post-it notes and bits of scrap paper over lights that detract from a watch keepers night vision.

On some bridges I've seen, there are so many small lights dotted around the place, it would make spotting a fishing canoes using a flame lanterns as a lights other dimly lit lighting very difficult, unless you were standing out on the bridge wing.

[bobofinga]

I don't know if there are any actual rules in place , and if and how they would measure the light output BUT I have noticed more and more newer ships having a lot more 'red light' and dimmer functions on more consoles than used to.

[YoungMariner]

Depends really on whether the bridge has to be properly designed or just cobbled together with new equipment added over time. I have sailed on modern ships where a few clicks on the ecdis console dims down every display including the power management and tank monitoring etc to the darken ship settings. My present tonnage has had a lot of additions and darkening ship is a long process.

[alistairuk]

there is a nightly ritual of putting post-it notes and bits of scrap paper over lights that detract from a watch keepers night vision.

Sticking those scrap bits of paper on stuff does kill some time though...

To be fair only time I've had to do it on latest ship is when something's crashed and the repeater displays have frozen on full brightness displaying "error".

Newer display screens are better as in most cases you can just turn the brightness right down, the older LED and light bulb based ones are worse - especially on a 27 year old ship where random bulbs refuse to dim correctly and stay on full brightness.

[Dosedmonkey]

They should be wired up, so all lights dim equally with one switch, for good control. The age of the ship shouldn't effect dimming, nor bulb type, if the circuits were designed correctly for it in the first place AND the correct bulbs are being used (mostly the second one is the problem). I have changed bridge lights from bulb to LED, both worked fine, as were rated correctly.

There can't be any regulations on exact dim levels, a less you had a outside light monitor, the whole idea sounds far too complicated, as it depends on the individuals eye sight anyway surely (You know better then me?)?

More I think about it, if lights aren't dimming correctly, sounds like you got the wrong rated bulbs in, or the ship was built in say... Poland?

[chris]

Yes, it wouldn't be hard to have centralised dimming. I was on a Polish built ship and the build quality was far superior to another ship I was on built in Glasgow.

[Dosedmonkey]

Yes, it wouldn't be hard to have centralised dimming. I was on a Polish built ship and the build quality was far superior to another ship I was on built in Glasgow.

I was on a polish ship, where the piping was made of such poor steel, almost every pipe had sprung a leak or three. But it was from end of cold war era times.

[ETwhat?]

But half the fun of fault finding on a bridge is turning up the brightness on a display that doesn't work

[GuinnessMan]

I was on a polish ship, where the piping was made of such poor steel, almost every pipe had sprung a leak or three. But it was from end of cold war era times.

Value for money if the pipework is only starting to leak now....

[Dosedmonkey]

No they were leaking long before I was on there, after about 5 years of sailing.

[Silvertop]

Sticking those scrap bits of paper on stuff does kill some time though...

Be careful sticking paper over lights (or blue tack over buzzers) as this can be interpreted as tampering with equipment, especially if they are safety/alarm related. I had this recently during an annual survey, luckily the guy was understanding but it raised a valid point.