Agree, It does look a bit odd.. I think it would look better if the refractor was offset in the opposite direction of the arm and pole.

I agree, if they're gonna offset it, they should do it the other way. I'm not a huge fan of NEMAs anyway. I like vintage ones for the sake that they're vintage but in reality they're just a low cost fixture.

Who ever installed this fixture installed the refractor backwards, these normally offset to the front but I agree I'm not a fan of that.

Hard to believe some installer left it like that thinking "Yeah, that looks good !"

I don't even get why they make LED NEMA heads. NEMA heads have to be the absolute worst-designed fixture out there as far as optical/lamp distribution is concerned. Although it seems NEMA bucket fixtures will be the only drop lens LEDs we see...

I agree with that. NEMA buckets are universally hated by the dark sky folks and neighbors of people who use them. Light polluting glare bombs with cheap zero control optics. When I was a bored kid in the 60's we would bounce golf balls off the street to see if we could knock the lamp out of them

I do know this town is served by a municipal utility which did use NEMA Heads for lighting. This could be the reason why the used LED Nemas for this installation.

The Offset is ugly IMO....but reguarding Nema Heads being the worst offenders of glare id have to disagree and say Globe/Acorn Lanterns are the worst offenders on that front...in Any case the Nema Head itself is just a Head capable of accepting any style Optic that fits it...even providing less control over the light distribution ive noticed some buckets do indeed have patterns to direct the light. and of course a Gumball/Teardrop refractor is basically Semi-Cutoff.

I has pendant mount fixtures in mind when I said that, but yeah, post tops are even worse. While some have baffles/guards as well, many post top designs are glarebombs and much of the light they cast onto the ground isn't usable because of the direct glare to the eye. Yep, Admiral's Hats and Crescent Moon optics are also less glarey but the bucket optics are the only thing left available now, so any NEMA head you buy now will have the bucket optics. They have the SkyGuard FCO NEMAs but they have a very tight pattern. Either way, when there's a NEMA in use, there's almost always another fixture that could better suit the application.

that brings up an interesting point.....reguarding Nema head fixtures why are Bucket optics the only Optic avalible for them now? seems the Days of Gumball/Teardrop,Radial Wave and Cresent moon opticals are long gone from the Nema Head.

what's better suited is all a matter of perspective i suppose. i don't mind the Nema bucket but i can certainly see even in those with actual optics on the bucket it's not the most efficent design..

im no DSA freak but glare is a very real annoyance and saftey hazzard.

Floodlights & Shoeboxes to me are the same basic fixture design...but Floods are only really offenders based on how they're Aimed.

The gumball indeed had good light control and was a true semi cutoff. They are also I feel attractive. The plastic open bottom bucket is just a cheap unattractive alternative. Those nostalgic retro acorns just don't look right with HPS or MH lamps. What people miss is the soft warm incandescent light of the originals.

What i want to know is.....what does the reduced diversity in Nema Head Optics mean? does it mean they're being phased out or they just aren't popular anymore.

Honestly i do like the Reproduction Teardrops and gumdrops that are out there....they look pretty good and light well (i dont really care for the glasstop ones tho)

Vintagelites speaking of Acorns....in some Neighborhoods in Fort Worth there are Acorns on the Pebbled Concrete style poles....and alot of them ROCK clear MV Lamps and it looks very Natural!!!....some of the Newer postops are MH & HPS....the MH Acorns look OK to me...im pretty much used to the sight of HPS Acorns....but seeing them in MV is a real sweet sight.

Incandescent outdoors always has a Nostalgic feel to it....my Hometown of Tyler had a Few Incandescent BUCKET lights....they were pretty dim....Way back then i always wondered why they Had a Golden glow as apposed to Orange/White or Green. but Now i know.

and based on the fact that some of those Nema's looked Older i would not at all be suprised if they had Gumball optics way back in the day.....just as i discovered looking at historical pictures of Tyler that it used to have Form109's!!

The bucket optics have been the only option since the late 70s so if they were being phased out they probably would have already. The bucket optics are probably cheaper to make than the other optics. Gumballs (or more specifically, teardrops) were more common for MV here but I don't think they were all that common. Here, the incandescent street lights were pretty much all radial waves, admiral's hats, or crescent moons.

seems plausible....especially since these days i RARELY see new Nema Head installations for Roadway applications. in the existing installations when they're Replaced they are usually always replaced by a Cobrahead. i guess on that Front the popularity of small fixture is because instead of Keeping a Stock of Medium (200-400W),Small (Up To 250 mostly) and Nema's they can just Keep a Stock of small cobraheads with diffrent wattages and lamp types as needed. thats just one of my Theories.

I understand that the reproduction classic Pendant (Teardrop/Gumballs) aren't Nema's but im wondering if they're more expensive than the more standard fare of Cobraheads,Shoeboxes and Floodlights?

I believe the last latch on gumballs made was the Cooper URB which was discontinued sometime in 2008-2009. I think they had smaller latches so I don't think they would fit a normal NEMA head. Those were pretty common here for PSMH but they switched to King Luminaire fixtures after the URB got discontinued. The Kind Luminaire fixtures are pretty neat too, the city orders them in bare aluminium so they look a bit like vintage teardrops. Back in the 90s our gumballs were incandescent.

I guess another reason smaller 200-400w fixtures are getting popular is that it costs less to store and handle smaller fixtures and having the same type of fixture also means only one type of parts needs to be stocked.

Yeah it seems Canada tends to hold onto older fixture models longer than the US. I don't think that the OV-15 or URB were available here (though the OV-25 was apparently available in Texas as the OVW, with a flat glass, OVF reflector, and gray paint finish).

That is true....Canada not only holds onto older fixtures but they also have some Neat fixtures themselves that look right at home in the United states.

the Cooper OV-25 is common as dirt here in Texas. nice to see that classic design (minus the blunt nose) is still around and thriving.

what's with the transition from bare Alum. to a the Standard Greyish-White color most fixtures are By the way?

What do you mean about the transition from bare metal to gray? Cobraheads have always been gray since the 60s (with the exception of the Westinghouse lights, which remained painted silver (not bare, but painted silver) until Cooper got rid of the L-150 and L-250 and rolled out the OVS and OVM, which were the first gray Westinghouse-based fixture designs. Cobraheads were never bare metal in the US except by custom order (though GE doesn't allow it as an option). Canadian street lights are almost always bare. Not sure why. I assume it's to save cost but I highly doubt the cost different is that significant. Powdercoating has a large upfront cost for the machinery but it's a dirt-cheap process to run when you mass-produce, which is why manufacturers use it.

Yeah, we kept the OV-15 and OV-25s in production all the way until the mid 2000s or so and even then they were still made in bare aluminium. Not actually sure why we so use bare lights, even the King Luminaires we use as replacements for the gumballs are bare which seems to be special option. One thing though is it seems the new LED lights used to changeout HPS have all been grey painted.

To me, its a design flaw.