This looks great....but I guess the dropped refractors are a thing of the past; even newer HID fixtures are required to be full-cutoff in most jurisdictions. I think it's unfortunate, because FCO fixtures light a smaller area and create more glare for drivers and I never felt the glare & uplight from a well-designed drop-lens to be a problem.
Looks great! Unfortunately its the same deal here in Ontario with FCO lights. Most new installs are FCO now with the exception of Toronto who still uses dropped lens 115s and 125s.
Thanks Alain and Joe! All new city installs here are FCO,the utility seems to install a mix of FCO and drop lens fixtures. I recently reported a R47 near me that was reinstalled on a new pole and wasn't reconnected, they replaced it with a new AEL 115 with a drop lens.
I don't think the rate of FCO street lights has really gone up that much since they first became popular in the late 70s-80s, maybe slightly. For the most part, places that use FCO lights have used them for a while with the excepttion of some places like Ontario. Here when they replace the older 250W drop lens HPS 25ft pole freeway lighting systems, they use 400W HPS FCO lights on tall 35ft-ish poles. They don't mix FCO and drop lens though. Older lighting systems will still get drop lens lights when a new light is needed. they only use FCO lights when they replace the whole system (and on the flip sidethey won't install drop lens lights on new system installations)
Lights on wood poles though are drop lens here. In the 80s they installed FCO M-250A2s in 100 MV and a few in 175W and very few 70 or 100W HPS test lights. a smaller utility company in northeastern RI used FCO M-250R2s in the 90s HPS takeover though. But currently, when one of those FCO lights "goes bad" it gets replaced with a drop lens light.
Yeah I was hoping they would just reconnect it as it worked before it was moved and somehow forgot to reconnect it after the pole and power line upgrade..It was all drop lens here until about 15 years ago,then some municipalities started installing FCO due to the big deal over light pollution.
did they install a new arm too? They would have to check the wiring anyways since if they're replacing the light they need to disconnect the power to the light so i don't see how they could miss the fact that the light was disconnected...
Here there was a M-250R1 on a splintered pole that had a funky PC that would dayburn but would cause the light to glow a dim blue-pink at night. I reported the light and it was replaced with a M-250R2. The 6ft tapered elliptical stayed. But just a few days later, they came and replaced the splintered pole and instead of transferring the arm and the new M-250R2 they installed a new arm and a new M-250R2 just DAYS after they installed the first M-250R2 on the old tapered elliptical. DAYS! the new arm is a 6ft upsweep BTW...
yeah my guess is that when i had reported the light, they came out and replaced it then they reported the pole for immediate replacement and maybe they didn't get a change to record the first replacement in the books so they replaced it again, thinking they hadn't yet. since they were switching poles it made ssnse (at least a little bit anyways) to replace the arm but you would have thought the shiney new paint finish would have told them that the light had been replaced... Regardless though, if they were ordered to replace the light again by mistake they have to do it so maybe the light was at least installed somehere else (wouldn't get my hopes up on that one either...)
Refractors and dropped globes/lenses, at least on standard street light poles, are practices of the past. If you find them, collect them as they will get more rare: Lighting engineers have all but agreed that full or sharp-cutoff heads are a requirement in many new installations or a retrofit. Two main reasons being, 1 - Maximize the light from the head (distribution achieved w/reflector in the head & pole spacing) and 2 - Minimize "Disability Glare" for drivers and "Up-light" for stargazers.
Lights on wood poles though are drop lens here. In the 80s they installed FCO M-250A2s in 100 MV and a few in 175W and very few 70 or 100W HPS test lights. a smaller utility company in northeastern RI used FCO M-250R2s in the 90s HPS takeover though. But currently, when one of those FCO lights "goes bad" it gets replaced with a drop lens light.
@ Darren; bummer about the R47