this is very odd...but cool at the same times.

Agreed, although I would settle for something bluer. A daylight CFL is available. San Marino takes good care of their older lights whenever possible.

but why a CFL of all things?..i think a 65 Watt CFL's output is around 6000-8000 Lumens (im not sure)...that's alot dimmer than a 400 Watt Merc.

I agree too and they are indeed very dim.

At least they're decorations!

Why did they remove the mercs? It seems a little strange...

I'm guessing it was in an effort to save money.

Saving money replacing 4 CFLs in the lifetime of a MV

How about 20 cheap twisters equal to one good ol' Westy lifeguard?

Yeah , probaly more twisters , depending on the brand

Yeah. Their idea of saving money won't work out for them.

20 Twisters equal to one westy lifeguard?..i think your giving the CFL's too much credit.

creative conversion but so very ill concieved...the lamp is sitting way at the back of the reflector anyway so it's not centered optically they could have at least used extension sockets.

i'd rather see a HPS or better yet CMH Conversion.

San Marino is an interesting city in terms of their streetlighting practices. They seem to want it dimmer...I've never seen such low light levels in any urban/suburban area before. There are a number of mercury fixtures left, but I saw ones that had probably 50w lamps in them. And I think there were some 50w HPS and 18w LPS as well but it's been some years since i've been there. It's a real mish-mash of old fixtures and some newer ones. I remember seeing ONE incandescent gumball lighting a major road...it was barely putting out any usable light. Maybe it's the one City in LA where you can possibly see the stars (if the smog ever clears).

Indeed, San Marino has many streets that have very low lighting levels. Another thing of note is that San Marino doesn't have as much HPS as other California cities, in fact it is mostly non HPS!

Cool clamshell, I wonder why they converted it to CFL instead of something like 50 or 70w CMH.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Well going to CFL is better than just scrapping the fixture itself! So I love it and yet it makes it look like almost incandescent if you think about it!

That is very true, yes I am 110% in favor of keeping old fixtures in use, although I would go for something like a 100w merc or CMH if low light level is desired. Or even 20,000 hour incandescent lamps. I am concerned about the dependability of CFLs, 65w CFLs cannot tolerate enclosed fixtures.

well at least it wont burn up your house LOL....it will force them to stop using CFL if they aint reliable enough and go incandescent or even the CMH...hopefully!

CFL's don't do well in small enclosed fixtures true but the Clamshell isn't that small.

and 20,000 Hour Incandescent Lamp?...must be very inefficent.