Funkii Munkii

Anyone in the street lighting game ??

I have noticed over the years, in various parts of the country they seem to replace the entire street lamp, post, lamp, wiring etc.

The new bulb may be more efficient which I would expect, and to some extent the lamp may also be more efficient but why replace the post, why pay another company to dig another hole beside the current lamp post, why pay another company to fix the electrics ? what was wrong with the original hole and wiring and furniture

Is there a valid reason or is this just a blatant waste of money on a national scale along with jobs for the boys. ?

DCI Gene Hunt

Is there a corrosion issue with the post?

JDM_Stig

iTrader: (3)

is the old one concrete ? is the new one taller ?

Funkii Munkii

Nope, unless......

BOB.T

They've just done them near me. The new ones are quite a chunk taller, they give a better spread of light without causing as much light pollution.

Annoyingly, they did all of them in my street bar one!

DCI Gene Hunt

Probably to keep up with the following British Standards...

BS 5489: Parts 1 – 10,”Code of Practice for Road Lighting”
BS EN 60529: Specification for Clarification of Degrees of Protection
provided by Enclosures
BS EN 605589-2-3: 1994 Luminaires for Road and Street Lighting
BS 5649: Lighting Columns
BS EN 40:Lighting columns1992
Department of Environment Transport and Regions Departmental
Standard BD26/94 - Design of Lighting Columns

Funkii Munkii

All steel, no more than 20 years old where we are now.
In some parts they have been taller but where we live now they are exactly the same height. In our Cul De Sac there are two alleys that were to go into the woods behind the houses but that never happened as they fenced it off at the end of the alley, they even replaced the lights at the bottom of the alleys, the only purpose that one serves is lighting up my neighbours back garden

Edited to mention it's not just one or two they are changing every one in the area.

Spec'c'57

iTrader: (1)

Health and safety I bet and to comply with BS standards.

Miniman

iTrader: (2)

They did some of ours recently and I much prefer these new ones. Brighter, whiter light and the one immediately outside our house puts much less light into the house, but lights the driveway and path better making it more secure for us.

But they replaced them all and particularly "our" old lamp was fine on visual inspection. My guess is that some will have corrosion, some dodgy electrics, some not sound footings, etc. It's probably easier to pay a contractor to replace all rather than go round and find out which would fail under any safety laws or updates of regulations and then replace/fix those particular parts.

warrenm2

theres a nationwide pfi deal to swap em all out....

corradoboy

The whole of Leeds has been slowly getting new lights for the last 3 years. Can't understand why they didn't consider fitting a tiny device which also switches every other light off between 1am and 5am, alternating each night to spread out bulb lifetime. Would maybe have added £10 per light, but saved a fortune on electric, and prolonged bulb life too.

Adrian F

i was looking at units in 2009 being demo'd that were LED and had PIR sensors so they would reduce to half brightness after a set period of no movement and then boost to full output when some one approaches so that if you go to your car the nearest lamp post will switch to full brightness. the fittings had a prospective life of 20 years.

obviously to replace all the column tops with these is a big investment so not sure if the council involved has gone ahead.

The Pink Ninja

iTrader: (23)

I`ve noticed that quite a lot have been changed and moved away from the kerbs too

speye91

I once told my friends wife that i had a job turning the lights on and off for the local council. Four hours a day...

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

I also think that newer ones are safer when crashing into them.