And here's a neat trick: On a dark night, stand under a pylon (or the transmission wires) and wave a fluorescent tube in the air. As if by magic, it will start to glow.

Once you understand the principles of electromagnetic induction (which is key to how inductors and transformers work when an alternating current is passed through them) then the principles of the induction lamp will become clear. (The clue is in the name).

All the best,
Simon

One of the best ways to think of induction lighting is to compare it to a transformer. In a transformer the input and output circuits are separate, and power is transferred from one circuit to the other via an electromagnetic field. In an induction lamp the output circuit is a tube full of gas rather than a second coil of wire like in a transformer.

I want to go and try that now!  

There are videos on YouTube somewhere!

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Work has been completed at the Sainsbury's rebuild the Wallington store in Fareham, Hampshire. Some of the near 20 year old ZX3 remain but on newly painted columns. There are also QSMs on new galvanised columns as well as Vista Grandes. The latter are in the "car park bay areas" with the other lanterns used on the roads around the perimeter of the site.

It's fairly similar then to the Sainsbury's revamp near me. As the one at Monks Cross got Vista Grandes for the car parking areas, but the petrol station and approach road just has more standard lanterns like some Phillips SGS 203's have been retained and some Lunoides have been installed.

Has anybody spotted a Sainsbury's yet with Solar Powered Belisha Beacons yet? because the Monks Cross store has them - and to be brutally honest, I don't know why they bothered. During the day thay are unlit (charging), and so at night you'd think they'd flash on and off as normal beacons do... but they don't. The "off" time is about 3 times longer than on standard beacons, while the "on" time is only half the time it is on a standard beacon. The LED(s) inside don't come straight on and straight off either, for some reason it was decided that the driver module would dim them in and dim them out (though the dimming isn't very good, and you can see the stages of the dimming). I think there may even only be 1 LED inside each of these beacons, as they are really dim - you can't work out if they are working if there happens to be a Vista Grande in the same sight line as the beacon; and if there is a Vista Grande within 2m of the beacon, then the beacon doesn't work at night!

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The Owlcoats Centre at Pudsey has new Urbis Saturns in place of the 'Cube' type lanterns that were there previously and slightly off topic but to do with that Sainsbury's lantern, the Vista Grandes. New Pudsey railway station car park now has these, in place of the Phillips SGS201 that were used previosly.

The footpath between the two sites still retain their "Hullness" about them.

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From streetlighting to radio, dance through the night whilst the streetlights are glowing outside.

Oh good, the XGS201's are still there then. I have seen those lit at night, and they are SOX - oddly enough considering all the others were SON. Shame that the removal of the cube lanterns was missed though.

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I didn't notice it at the time but the Wallington store has these as well. They weren't actually working though - the recent gloom not helping no doubt. The solar panels look to be far too small to power anything other than a LED and I doubt more than 1 at that. Not enough charge during winter and I bet during the summer, the illumination of the globe won't be bright enough to see against the sun. A case of form over function...  

Exactly. When I've seen one 'working' (I'll use that word, but really it is being generous!) there only seems to be one source of light from inside the globe. They look rather odd by day and don't work well enough at night - quite pathetic really!
If they wanted solar beacons, then they should have got normal beacons and fitted the big sized solar panels around the car park, and the big box of batteries would power a couple of globes each - at least until 11pm when the store is closed and most staff have gone.

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