Street lights

[fan-of-fans]

Are any of you interested in street lights? I do have an interest.

My area has mostly the cobra type lights. Downtown there are mostly the acorn style street lights which have fancy posts that I am guessing are antique. The promenade has globe lights with five globes.

Some 70s subdivisions have those round cylindrical lights with a "hat" on top. Those I really like.

I recall one house in my neighborhood had a cobra head for a yard light. They threw it away and I should have gotten it. It was an ITT brand I recall.

Lately the power company has been using the new LED lights when the yard lights need replacing. My neighbor across the street has one now, it doesn't shine in my windows like the old sodium one.

My favorite bulbs were the mercury ones, I like the green/blue tint that is mellow. Don't see many of them anymore. Just yard lights mostly and some really old cobras.

Oh, and I really like the antique street lights that look like a pie pan with a light bulb in the middle.

 

[tolivac]

You need to get on and join the "Lighting Gallery" forum.Its at Lighting Gallery.net.Joined this under recommendation of one of the Vacuumland members.Glad we have another "Flashoholic" here-someone that likes lighting equipment-fixed or portable.The cobrahead lights at our transmitter were replaced with LED cobraheads-so far these are doing well.218W-warm color LED-4K.The old lights were Westinghouse cobrahead 250W,and 400W mercury.Managed to salvage some of these and yes,use them at home!I like ALL HID lights,Mercury,Metal Halide,and HPS.I have some portable lights that use HID Xenon-halide lamps-essentually car headlights packaged as a portable light.Love these-can light up the towerfeilds!The Cobraheads we have are American Electric,and GE Excell floodlights-both use LED-so far these are the only LED lights I have liked.Will have to see how long these last at the workplace.The WalMart here has very cold,6K LED lights-don't like them.The Metal Halide lights at the neighboring Food Lion look much better.

 

[circlew]

When I was really young (up until about age 6 or 7), most of the residential streets had lights mounted on the telephone poles, and were the RLM style shown in the link below. They were painted black.

The business district, and a few residential streets, had iron poles with the "acorn" style globes. Our local historical society has a couple of the old cast iron poles and glass globes, but unfortunately aren't using them. I thought about getting a similar light pole for my yard, but I got a very high quote from the electric supply distributor for an authentic looking one.

Around 1962 the town got all new mercury vapor streetlights, which were in use until a couple years ago. At that time, they installed new LED fixtures (cobra head type).

hilitemfg

www.hilitemfg.com

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

Street lights are cool. Our cobra heads have been replaced with hideous LED fixtures. While I like the lighting, the lamp fixture itself scream CHEAP!

 

[artcurus]

I see your streetlights and raise you Air Raid Sirens.

The ones on youtube from WWII Germany (many are still in use) are creepy as hell and will send a chill down your spine.

https://www.thesirenboard.com/forums/

german air raid siren

 

[mrb627]

LED Streetlights

Initially, I thought the replacement of the traditional orange glowing lamps, which I despise, with LED was a great idea. Until I found a nearby neighborhood that has made the switch. Hate them. Light is very focused on the area under the pole instead of casting light across the area.

Malcolm

 

[tolivac]

The orange-yellow lights are the high pressure sodium ones.I don't like most of the LED streetlights,either.The light maker needs to put the diffuser lens on them.That would cut the glare.Face it folks LED's need more grow up time.HID lighting STLL has the better lumens per watt-HPS and MH.Many places are being too quick to convert--they end up with a light that is really LESS efficient,and often LESS reliable.Mercury lamps were the best in relaibility and life.In my area one section of the road has new LED lights-the other has the HPS ones-The HPS lights especially cut thru fog and rain better than the blue-white LED lights.And the orange yellow light helps keep your night vision.Too many of the new LED streetlights are "glare bombs" becuase they don't hav e the diffusers the older lights use.
Oh yes,the German siren was really very effective-think the Lower frequency would cut thru other noise better.That unit was well made-still works and the siren fan-rotor spindown-several minutes-shows good balance and bearings-esp after all those years!

 

[wayupnorth]

They are making the switch to LED bulbs here in both street lights and traffic signals. Problem is when it snows, the LED bulbs do not give off heat so traffic signals are useless.

 

[rp2813]

A news report yesterday advised that the medical professionals are concerned about LED street lighting because of its "blue" hue, which prevents the production of melatonin and can contribute to insomnia.  Apparently they think we're already overexposed to such light, even from smart phones, and LED street lighting is only going to make things worse.  Apple has already provided a "night shift" setting on their i-Phones that makes them dimmer in an attempt to address the insomnia issue.

 

Personally, I don't think the new LED street lights are as effective as previous types, except the yellow HPS ones, which are all over this town and pathetically ineffective (sloooowly being phased out for LED).  These HPS types also create a monochrome effect on everything below, as well as provide camouflage for the yellow traffic signals, which blend in with the street lighting.

 

The best street lighting IMO is the (LPS?) type that provides a warm, pinkish tone that makes makes everything look better, and apparently lets everyone sleep better too.

 

[joeekaitis]

LED corncobs . . .

. . . illuminate the widely spaced intersections of Highway 395 in the High Sierras.

 

[countryford]

In our backyard we have an old street lamp with a date of 1899 on it. It was originally gas, but someone prior to us, converted it to electric. The good thing is that they didn't ruin it when they converted it. It could easily be changed back to gas if need be. I'll have to post a picture of it later.

 

[gusherb]

Chicago has been converting to LED's by neighborhood. So far I'm not a fan. They look cheap and the white light is stark. It would be nice though if they would start using diffusers that don't point any light up, as that contributes to light pollution big time, and they do light those streets BRIGHT.

Out here in NWI, NIPSCO only uses HPS cobra heads and they seem to work ok, I'm always seeing one that's turning on and off though. The nice thing is they have an outage website for the street lights where I can open a map of all the lights they own and report the trouble. Their are 6 utility owned lights in the park adjacent to the house that one always seems to be having a problem, last time I reported one of them they had it fixed the next day. I wish it were that easy with the town since the stupid HPS lamp post on our street corner keeps going out, not even sure which department to call about that.

 

[rp2813]

More On LED Street Lighting

First, a correction.  The super yellow lamps I dislike are LOW pressure sodium.  The ones that look like pink mercury vapor are HIGH pressure sodium.

 

I've attached a link that mentions changes to the way cinematic night streetscapes will appear after HPS fixtures are all gone, suggesting that old HPS scenes will take on a sepia tone quality compared to the brighter, whiter LED scenes that will become the new normal.

 

Portland will replace all 55,000 streetlights with blue-tinted LEDS (poll)

Three months after New York City announced that it is replacing 250,000 streetlights with LEDS, the Portland Bureau of Transportation told The Oregonian on Wednesday that it is in the process of making the same transition.

www.oregonlive.com

 

[cornutt]

Yeah, LPS light is distinctly yellow. It's the most efficient form of street lighting ever created at this point, but people dislike the color. Last time I saw any was in a hotel parking lot in San Diego about two years ago.

 

[gusherb]

I called the towns public works department yesterday morning about the lamp post on our street corner. She said she would call their contractor. Well, to my surprise the light was working yesterday evening, so they came awfully fast! Quicker service then reporting a broken light with NIPSCO.

 

[michael]

London lights

Hi
our local borough (Lambeth)started in june, to replace all 12,000 street lights from high pressure sodium, to L.E.D. ...They have to be the most miserable, cold in effective lights ever.
They are like mini spot lights..so bright where the post is...and then nothing.if someone is walking on the other side of the road, all you see is a shadow. I feel we have really gone back in time. When I was growing up, we had sodium (yellow lights). Most of the borough had either mercury or fluorescent lighting...it always seemed so much brighter with the sodium.
over the years, it all changed..All the concrete posts have gone and high pressure sodium (orange) ruled the day..now this... anyone got a spare flashlight??? l.o.l

 

[tolivac]

On HPS llights-if you want more "pinkish" color tone-use some of the deluxe HPS grow light bulbs sold from plant light suppliers.I would like to try these bulbs in the hPS lights I have in my collection.Deluxe color HPS lights can help-they have a smaller arc tube that is purposely "overdriven" to gice a slightly whiter color.The grow light HPS lamps have additives in them to improve the red-pink adn blue colors.These would be worth trying but are more expensive adn have shorter life.I have a GE "deluxe" HPS bulb adn there is a diffrenence betwenn it adn a standard HPS bulb.Best color comes from Metal Halide-absolute best is from ceramic metal halide-pulse start.Phillips used to make a Retro White Mastercolor retrofit ceramic metal halide lamp to replace HPS lamps.GREAT BULB!!they discontinued them.SAD.If you can find these in places or EBay,whatever SNATCH THEM up!The best conversion bulb ever.Some folks on the Lighting Gallery forum find them at Habitat For Humanity places.The one near me always looks like a sick yard sale-old beat up furniture,toys,worn out clothes-no nice lighting equipment.Check the one near you-you might get some good light equipment.

 

[Ultramatic]

 

 

 

Talk about a rip off. We were supposed to get these new LED lamp post and fixtures:

 



 



 

But no, we were lied to. The city merely switched the LPS cobra heads and stuck on these cheap LED lamps on the old poles:

 



 



 

And don't get me started on the bridges "necklace" lights. They switched them from HPS to noticeably dimmer LED's.

 

We were robbed.

 

 

 

[tolivac]

They also follow new energy directives-lower wattage LED lights-for even LESS light and MORE glare.Utterly STUPID regulations.