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Photocell and minicell discussion
http://ukastle.co.uk/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=205
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Author:  sox200 [ Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Photocell and minicell discussion

Hi thanks for reply

Author:  meppso [ Mon Jul 02, 2018 12:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Photocell and minicell discussion

Hi All,

As the LED onslaught continues through Cumbria I  have noticed a change in the photocells the council are using. The council have used Zodion for a long time, back in 2004 the Cumbria Specification blue photocell came out which denoted 55 Lux, then came the green cell in about 2009 denoting 35 Lux.

When the LED program started in 2014, I noticed a red photocell appeared, this was made by SELC and denoted 20 Lux, the SELC photocell was of very poor quality and now the council have gone back to Zodion (shows how bad the SELC was!)

I noticed a white cell making an appearance at the back end of last year, this denotes 10 Lux!! It's a shame that loads of lovely old lanterns and working photocells are being replaced by the new LEDs :(

Regards,

Andrew.

Author:  meppso [ Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Photocell and minicell discussion

Phosco152 wrote:
Yes, seen it on the base of the cell with my own eyes, I would have thought anything less than 30 Lux must be for specialist applications...


Hi All,

I was reading through the old Photocell discussions and found this old message from 2011. It's strange to think that when this was posted anything less than 30 lux was considered to be a special installation. In Cumbria about this time we were about to move to 35 lux cells, I remember at the time thinking that this would be too dark. Now we are using 10 lux cells!! It's amazing how things have changed in a short space of time.

Regards,

Andrew.

Author:  Phosco152 [ Sun Jul 22, 2018 9:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Photocell and minicell discussion

I suppose back in 2011, LED was a rarity, and SON still needs a couple of minutes to come to full brightness. Photocells back then also tended to be 1:0.5 ratio, so 30 Lux on would be 15 off, making potentially the switch off, too early.

With LED, the switch on is instant and therefore can be later, and cells have moved to 1:1 ratio. In order to save power, the trend is to switch off earlier in the morning. For instance, Hampshire's CMS seems to switch off early in the mornings - probably around 10-15 Lux.

Author:  meppso [ Mon Jul 23, 2018 12:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Photocell and minicell discussion

Yeah you're right about the LEDs, a majority of the roads in Cumbria were illuminated by SOX at the time, when a 35 Lux cell was put on a 135W SOX  lantern you could see the sky was almost dark by the time the lantern warmed up.

Also at the time I remember the 135W SOX lanterns being replaced for 140W CDO and the 90 Watt SOX lanterns being replaced for 90W CDO. I think they had dimming built into them. Three years later they were all replaced with LEDS :)

Regards,

Andrew.

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