LED's... The Name of the Game in Street Lighting !!

[n2ize]

I r4ecently noticed a neuighboring town is switching their street lights from sodium and mercury vapour to LED street lighting. Now, my city is changing over from sodium vapour to LED's. Most of the streets in my area have already been switched over to LED's. My street will probably be changed over from Sodium to LE over the next week or so. It's kinda sad to see the old cobra head sodium vapour lights disappearing. I remember back in the 1980's when were were on incandescents and they switched to sodium vapour lighting. Now sodium vapour is obsolete and LED's are in. The times they are a changin.

[NQ6U]

I think John's spell checker has developed a touch of the vapours.

[NA4BH]

I think John's spell checker has developed a touch of the vapours.


:rofl:

[n2ize]

I think John's spell checker has developed a touch of the vapours.

Maybe but I was always fascinated by street lighting from the early days of candles and oil lamps to gas and arc lamps to incandescents, to mercury and sodium vapour and metal halide. This changeover to high intensity LED lighting is really interesting. It will save on electricity and replacement costs. It will be interesting to see how it works out as time goes on. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. Most people are oblivious to things such as street lighting.

[KG4CGC]

I switched my Mag-Lite™ over to LED when the price of LED bulbs fell below $9.

[NA4BH]

It used to be fun to watch the old street lights burn out.

[NQ6U]

I don't like the colour of those LED street lamps. It makes all the lorries look strange. I do use one in the boot of my wife's car, but not under the bonnet.

[KG4CGC]

I don't like the colour of those LED street lamps. It makes all the lorries look strange. I do use one in the boot of my wife's cars.

On the M5.

[NA4BH]

On the M5.

That's the Mythbusters place, isn't it?

[KG4CGC]

That's the Mythbusters place, isn't it?

Highway near London England.

[WØTKX]

We're installing a few LED street lights at work soon.
They are bright as heck, and use 1/3 less power.
Remind me of mercury vapor "white hot color".

[NQ6U]

We're installing a few LED street lights at work soon.
They are bright as heck, and use 1/3 less power.
Remind me of mercury vapor "white hot color".

Hmmm... I wonder what the astronomers up at Palomar will have to say about it if San Diego decides to go that way. Mercury vapor lamps created problems for them so they were happy when the city switched to high pressure sodium vapor lamps. If the new LED lamps are the same color temperature as mercury vapor lamps, they'll be back to square one.

[NA4BH]

Hmmm... I wonder what the astronomers up at Palomar will have to say about it if San Diego decides to go that way. Mercury vapor lamps created problems for them so they were happy when the city switched to high pressure sodium vapor lamps. If the new LED lamps are the same color temperature as mercury vapor lamps, they'll be back to square one.


Will they have to re-do "the map to the stars"?

[n2ize]

I don't like the colour of those LED street lamps. It makes all the lorries look strange. I do use one in the boot of my wife's car, but not under the bonnet.

Now your talkin. Never under the bonnet. It could ignite the petrol vapours. ;)

[n2ize]

Hmmm... I wonder what the astronomers up at Palomar will have to say about it if San Diego decides to go that way. Mercury vapor lamps created problems for them so they were happy when the city switched to high pressure sodium vapor lamps. If the new LED lamps are the same color temperature as mercury vapor lamps, they'll be back to square one.

You mean high pressure natrium vapour lamps.

[K9CCH]

I remember back in the 1980's when were were on incandescents and they switched to sodium vapour lighting. Now sodium vapour is obsolete and LED's are in. The times they are a changin.


its not only obsolete, sodium vapor bulbs are effin expensive!! Like $35-$100 expensive.

i use a sodium vapor safelight in my darkroom. It's a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight. The bulbs last forever, like decades in some cases, but they cost an arm and leg to replace.

[KG4CGC]

Now your talkin. Never under the bonnet. It could ignite the petrol vapours. ;)

It's dark out. Use a torch.

[n2ize]

its not only obsolete, sodium vapor bulbs are effin expensive!! Like $35-$100 expensive.

i use a sodium vapor safelight in my darkroom. It's a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight. The bulbs last forever, like decades in some cases, but they cost an arm and leg to replace.

Yeah. I use a 400 watt mercury vapour in my yard and a 175 watt in my garage. Cheaper than sodium's, they also last forever... with infrequent use almost never need replacement. But imagine a city running thousands upon thousands of them and constantly doing replacements... not to mention ballasts and bad photo switches. No wonder they want to switch to LED's ASAP.

[W2NAP]

I think John's spell checker has developed a touch of the vapours.

Can you feel it
Nothin' can save ya
For this is the seaon of catchin' the vpors

[W7XF]

Can you feel it
Nothin' can save ya
For this is the seaon of catchin' the vpors

OMG:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWWwM2wwMww

[KG4CGC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlTmSUNs9xY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlTmSUNs9xY

[suddenseer]

LED's are cool. in 2002 I bought my Dad, and brother XMAS stocking stuffers of LED flashlights. It was my first on line purchase from overstock.com. 11 years later, my Dad's flashlight is still burning bright with the original batteries I provided. He recently told me that is the best, and last flashlight he has ever owned.

[n2ize]

LED's are cool. in 2002 I bought my Dad, and brother XMAS stocking stuffers of LED flashlights. It was my first on line purchase from overstock.com. 11 years later, my Dad's flashlight is still burning bright with the original batteries I provided. He recently told me that is the best, and last flashlight he has ever owned.

Yeah but hang on to a few of those old vintage incandescent flashlights. They'll be collectors items soon, if not already. Somewhere round here I have a flashlight from the 1930's or 40's. I got to find it and see if it still works.

[WØTKX]

Actually, early LED flashlights are getting to be collector items.

Just like the original red LED watches and calculators.

Nixie Tubes, man. Nixie Tubes. :lol:

[n2ize]

Actually, early LED flashlights are getting to be collector items.

Just like the original red LED watches and calculators.

Nixie Tubes, man. Nixie Tubes. :lol:

I always wanted to build a nixie tube clock but have never gotten around to it. There are a lot of inexpensive Russian surplus nixie tubes that can be had on ebay for relatively cheap. Even if I don't build the clock for another 5 or 10 years I should at least buy the nixie tubes so I have them before they start becoming scarce and expensive. I am also a big fan old old luminous radium pocket watches, watches and clocks. I have a couple that still glow faintly. The important thing to note is that it is not the radium itself that deteriorates. Radium has a half life of around 1600 years so those watches will show radioactivity for hundreds of years to come. What happens is the zinc sulphide material that luminescences in the presence of radiation eventually deteriorates. I have tested old radium watches that no longer glow with a geiger counter and they all still show notable activity when placed close to the geiger tube.

Speaking of red LED calculators I wish I still hade my old TI-59 programmable calculator complete with read/write magnetic cards, drop in modules preprogrammed for various types of calculations, i.e. engineering, finance, aviation, etc. I remember the memory registers could be partitioned depending on the application you were programming. You could partition it for allowing more data storage space and less space for programming steps or, less data memory and more programming steps. Also, programs and data could be stored on the little magnetic cards. For it's time it was an incredible little machine.

[WØTKX]

I was an HP-41CV kinda guy. :neener:

Now, Excel does it even better. ;)

[W3WN]

Maybe but I was always fascinated by street lighting from the early days of candles and oil lamps to gas and arc lamps to incandescents, to mercury and sodium vapour and metal halide. This changeover to high intensity LED lighting is really interesting. It will save on electricity and replacement costs. It will be interesting to see how it works out as time goes on. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this. Most people are oblivious to things such as street lighting.What's going to be interesting is what happens to them in the winter.

The older street lights & traffic lights waste a lot of energy as heat; that's part of the savings that the new LED lighting provides, due to efficiency.

But the side effect... because the lights run cooler, they won't melt snow & ice buildup like they used to. Could prove very intersting (and not in a good way)

[WØTKX]

It's already an issue with LED stoplights. :lol:

[NQ6U]

because the lights run cooler, they won't melt snow & ice buildup like they used to.

"Snow & ice"? I know nothing of this "snow & ice" thing of which you speak.

[N2NH]

Some of the early LED flashlights didn't fare too well. In 2002 I bought 2 Lightwave flashlights with LEDs embedded in PVC. (http://www.dansdata.com/ledlights7.htm) Three models were available, 3 D cell (10 LEDs), 3 C cell (7 LEDs) and 3 AA cell (4 LEDs). All failed within 3 years. Lightwave's site is history too.

The Maglite LED flashlights and the LED bike lights I bought in 2004 ran without problems no matter what happened to them. Still have the Maglites.

[n2ize]

What's going to be interesting is what happens to them in the winter.

The older street lights & traffic lights waste a lot of energy as heat; that's part of the savings that the new LED lighting provides, due to efficiency.

But the side effect... because the lights run cooler, they won't melt snow & ice buildup like they used to. Could prove very intersting (and not in a good way)

True. Also the LED lights are not as intense as the sodium and mercury vapour types. So I am wondering if they are going to install the LED types on the major heavy traffic roadways or just the quieter side streets. So far they have installed them on the side streets. The main roads are still on sodiums. Yes, they will be more prone to ide and snow buildup. At the same time they'll be less fragile and less subject to physical or thermal shock.

[n2ize]

its not only obsolete, sodium vapor bulbs are effin expensive!! Like $35-$100 expensive.

i use a sodium vapor safelight in my darkroom. It's a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight. The bulbs last forever, like decades in some cases, but they cost an arm and leg to replace.

Sodiums, metal halides, and mercuries are still very intense and may still be used in areas requiring very high intensity lighting, such as highways, major roads, and large parking lots, stadium and baseball lighting, etc.

[n2ize]

Hmmm... I wonder what the astronomers up at Palomar will have to say about it if San Diego decides to go that way. Mercury vapor lamps created problems for them so they were happy when the city switched to high pressure sodium vapor lamps. If the new LED lamps are the same color temperature as mercury vapor lamps, they'll be back to square one.

I don't know. The LED lights they installed in the neighboring town seem to have a high colour temp and produce a sharp bluish white light that looks almost exactly like mercury vapour. The ones they are installing around here seem to have a lower colour temp and produce a slightly lower temp colour, more of a cross between incandescents and mercuries.

[K7SGJ]

its not only obsolete, sodium vapor bulbs are effin expensive!! Like $35-$100 expensive.

i use a sodium vapor safelight in my darkroom. It's a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight. The bulbs last forever, like decades in some cases, but they cost an arm and leg to replace.

That would explain the high number of prosthetics needed by darkroom owners.

[KG4NEL]

That would explain the high number of prosthetics needed by darkroom owners.

Just a result of sniffin' fixer for too long... :cool2:

[N2RJ]

I have LED outside, spotlights and porch lights. The main reason I use them here is because they are almost full brightness in low temperature. But they are super bright and cost very little to run.

For the barn I still have mercury vapor though.

[K9CCH]

Just a result of sniffin' fixer for too long... :cool2:


I need to sniff some fixer. Its been months since I've printed anything.

[n2ize]

When I was in high school I built a carbon arc lamp. At first I used a salt water bath as a current limiting rheostat but it was too difficult to control. Then I got smart and used a 1500 watt electric heater in series with the lamp as a rheostat. Damned that carbon arc was INTENSE.... as in lighting up the whole block almost like day. I wanted to get hold of a well polished parabolic reflector so I could convert it into a ultra intense search light. That thing would have easily been able to light up the clouds. That thing kicked some major ass with respect to extreme intensity.