New streetlamps

[Jethro]

local council have decided they need to replace and resite streetlamps in our ward ... looking out I can see a few rings of plastic barriers around some holes.

Looks like they are moving them back from the kerb to the property boundary. And we're getting a couple on new ones too.

The old lamps were metal ... so are the new ones. Personally I would have thought they could have sold the old ones for a vast profit (given the prices of scrap metal) and then replaced with pre-cast concrete ones.

I wonder of any enterprising metal thieves have turned up in someones road in hi-vis jackets, and removed all the streetlamps ? I'd guess they weigh at least 100Kg a piece, so 10 is a tonne ...

[Andy Burns]

I think councils get frightened by lumps dropping off the old concrete ones ... or perhas their insurers did.

[damduck-egg]

You never know ,there are a lot of light fingered people about.

G.Harman

[Nick Leverton]

Grone ...

Nick

[Nightjar]

That reduces both the risk of people walking into them and the risk of cars hitting them.

It is easier to make progressively collapsing columns in metal.

Probably more likely to want the cable feeding them.

Colin Bignell

[Jim S]

North Tyneside and Newcastle have almost finished installing these. They are in new places because their pattern of light has been designed by computer. In some areas they are only on one side of the street. By and large they are taller and only point downwards, but they can shine in bedroom windows and sometimes shields are added to prevent this. They come in various brightness and wavelengths. My main grumble in this coastal area is that they keep the gulls awake most of the night.

[The Other Mike]

So bright that at 3am you can open a curtain and read a book 50 yards from the nearest lamp.

[Andy Burns]

You should be so lucky, those streetlights round here that haven't been decomissioned completely, switch off at midnight ...

[Frank Erskine]

The streetlights around here were changed around 5 years ago (a contract for renewal and maintenance awarded to Balfour Beatty via a local setup known as Aurora) from mainly a sort of inverted truncated cone which gave no light beneath and quite a lot of light shining into house windows around, and walls of buildings. The new lamps cast their light more or less downwards.

The initial feeling generally was that streets seemed darker, because people looking out of their windows were less dazzled - however, illumination of the carriageways and footways when walking or driving is much better.

It's a pity that some lamps are buried by the overhang from trees in private gardens which almost completely obliterate a few footpaths, causing the premature deaths of slugs and snails ...

[DerbyBoy]

It amazes me how the individual photocells turn them all on within a few minutes when the daylight starts to fail. Amazing accuracy and consistency.

[John Williamson]

So, they're not wired the way they used to be with a master cell or timer turning the whole street on and off, then?

Then again, making and selecting photocells with a couple of percent difference between a batch is trivial.

[Adam Aglionby]

Concrete posts went out of production mid -80`s , have Concrete Utilities ltd , now CU Phosco , light outside my window.

can , literally, be a killer to metal lamp posts , dog urine is suprsingly corrosive, was about 2 deaths a year attribiuted to lamp posts falling on people.

Modern streetlights are usually some form of high pressure sodium, its whiter thamn low pressure sodium which is distinctive monochrome yellow, only place left making the lamps is Philips factory in Hamilton. Concrete posts can have a retrofit new head put on them.

Cheers Adam

[Derek Geldard]

I'm sure that the light level falls quite rapidly once the sun gets low in the sky.

IIRC the eye's response is logarithmic so we don't notice it changing so quickly.

Derek G

[<me9]

The new ones round here were metal halide. Unfortunately the same geer as HP sodium, So the skinflint contractors maintaining them are spoiling the integrated look by replacing with the cheaper bulbs.

They are designed to be mounted (almost) horizontal, but again the skinflint contractor used old style poles which mean they point into the bedrooms opposite.

They are, however, better than the horizontally beamed 60s concrete poles they replaced.

[Jethro]

Well, turns out where I thought we were getting new ones, we didn't ... they were just accessing the cabling I guess. Anyway, tonight, after a noisy afternoon, we got back from a meal, and our lad spotted straightaway, that the new lamps were on.

Quite an improvement. They have 36 LEDs (or LED clusters), with quite a white, clinical light. They're about 2m taller than the old ones (which are still there, but off). They certainly seem to throw more light, and the design seems to leave no light going up ... since they are doing tne whole city apparently (Birmingham), it'll be interesting to see how many more stars we can see when it's done.

Also be curious as to how much money we'll save in 'leccy costs. Not that my council tax will come down.

[Dave Liquorice]

Probably won't street lighting is unmetered and is fixed fee. Of course with reduced demand it might be possible for the council to renegociate the contract.

With LEDs I'd expect a much reduce maintenance/lamp replacement bill.