This guy's weird becuase it dayburns during the day, but is ALWAYS off at night. I just can't put my finger on it! I reported it but they won't fix it. (???)
hmm. I didn't know PCs acted up like that... Hopefully this is 100W so it doesn't get replaced. Occasionally it'll glow a dim pink color. not enough to cast any usable light, but enough so i can see it glowing in the refractor from the main road (look at the bottom of the pic in the middle and you'll see the main road's power lines).
Maybe they accidentally ordered reverse-acting photocontrols. DTL and Sun-Tech I know both make photocontrols that switch on during the day and off at night.
@ Darren; yeah. I'd hate to say it, but maybe they're waiting until they have time to change the pole and then they just put up a new arm and light instead of transferring it.
They always transfer the light if it's HPS. Normally any street light will get transferred during a pole renewal since NGrid uses different people to do street light maintenance then other line duties. Since i reported this light though, they may get orderd to not transfer the light. Then a few weeks later a new light and arm will appear on the new pole. Normally they will transfer the old transformers and streetlights to the new pole. They are unpredictable when it comes to insulators though. Sometimes they get transferred, sometimes new polymer ones get put on, and other times older brown insulators replace the gray ones! They're iffy when it comes to transferring old primary supports too. Sometimes they'll transfer the insulator brackets, othertimes they'll install a crossarm instead of insulator brackets. I personally prefer the old brackets NE used. The so called brackets i speak of are found here
Duquesne Light will transfer a mercury vapor street light to the new pole but they'll replace it with a high pressure sodium street light after that. They'll transfer a high pressure sodium street light to a new pole and keep it there.
Yeah most of the utilities stopped servicing mercs around the fixture and ballast ban. NGrid surprisingly still relamps 100W mercs, likely until the existing tock runs out. I do occasionally see 100W MV M-250A2 FCOs get replaced by 50W HPS M-250R2s. That only seems to happen when the lamp goes compleatly out. I doubt it's a balalst failiture though since those 240V reactors are tanks!
Southern California Edison also stopped servicing mercs but they have very little left anyway. I think it is partly due to a policy that any street light over 15 years old must be replaced during service calls.
i think rules like that 15-year policy are just plain dumb. I mean if it still works like expected to, then why replace it? HPS lights from the 70s are still relamped here if they still work and don't have missing or damaged parts (refractor or doors)
Oh yeah, out here everyone will relamp street lights regardless of age as long as they work, except of course for the aforementioned utility. In the SF Bay area some cities still have 35 year old HPS Westy Silverliners going strong. In California the oldest HPS fixtures still in service that I am aware of are GE M-400As on the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge, installed in 1970. No NEMA tags! Here's an example.
okay, turns out they replaced this light with a HPS M-250R2 and kept the arm and pole. then LESS than a WEEK later, they changed the pole and the new pole has a 6ft mast arm so i'm guessing the light was replaced again. Not only did they replace the nice tapered E with a junky boring upsweep pipe and replace this nice merc, they replaced a light that was in use for LESS THAN A WEEK!!!! I havn't gone down the road yet to see te wattage of the new light though. When i do i'll get a pic of the new set up.
I'm not sure if they still relamp the remaining mercs in my area, but I believe they were still quite bright the last time I saw them.