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PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 7:55 pm 
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Several members have made comments recently about the long term future of SON.

Gramma6 wrote:
I think SON is gradually on the way out.


Urbis Saturn Land wrote:
I think the second generation of the Iridium should have been lamped as a MH or Cosmo only lantern, where as the original version would have still been SON, but should be pulled from the catalogue to encourage councils to use the Iridum2.


However, this fact obtained from the ILP meeting earlier this year should be taken into account.

Phosco152 wrote:
Well I have just got back from the ILP Midland Meeting held at SAPA Pole Products.

In the end apart from Simon C, I was the only other "enthusiast" there, all the other attendees were from the trade.

Overall it was a fascinating day with lots of technical snippets gleaned.


This next statement will come as a surprise. Both Philips and Zodion state that 48% of all installed luminaries by number (not wattage) are SOX! SON is 43% by number and the rest are "white light". It seems SOX is not quite as dead as we all thought, I would have thought the number would be half of that. It just goes to show how widespread SOX still is in residential installations.



That means only 9% of the lighting stock is white light - mercury, MH, fluorescent and LED. Now whilst this proportion is bound to rise as CFL and LED become more popular especially due to the PFIs, main road stock is still likely to be predominately SON. For instance whilst some MH is being installed for main roads as part of the Surrey and South Coast PFIs, SON is still also being used especially for the latter.

Whilst the efficiencies of SON and CosmoPolis are broadly similar, the former has cheaper lamps and control gear. Therefore SON lanterns are cheaper. In the present economic situation, price still rules, and for main road lanterns the differential is significant.

Whilst CFL (and the popularity of this is due to low running costs and cheaper lamps/lanterns than SON - dimming of CFL overcomes the theoretical shorter lamp lifetime) and LED (and to a lesser extent CosmoPolis) are likely to oust SON in wattages below 70W and perhaps up to 100W, for the larger wattages, SON is likely to remain supreme - until LED raises its efficiency and its reliability is proven - perhaps 5 years away. It could be a decade after that before LED really gets a market hold. It has taken SON more than 20 years to get where it is now.

Given all of this, manufacturers are not going to phase out SON lamps or SON lanterns while they form such a significant part of their business.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:49 pm 
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SON isn't going anywhere down in Plymouth, it is the main lamp type used on all roads, only footpaths are being lit with CFL. But white light is used on some of the new housing sites.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:12 pm 
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For most of the world, SON is the most common light source. It doesn't matter whether it is a highly developed country or a third world country, SON is popular everywhere. For years it was the best compromise between cost and light quality. I expect in many countries the light sources used previously were fluorescent, mercury and tungsten. Relatively few countries in the world are large users of SOX. Compared with fluorescent, mercury and tungsten SON provided more light for your money. SON will die out eventually, as other light sources are getting very good now, but whilst white light is becoming more popular in Britain, there are still plenty of developed world countries that barely touch white light at all.

I don't think metal halide will be the death of SON, I think LED will be the death of SON. All that is needed is for a few Chinese manufacturers to mass produce dirt cheap LED lanterns and export them to the rest of the world and things will change.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:08 pm 
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Going abit off topic here but what are the wattages on induction like? If they are similar to that of LED and with there long life they could well pose a threat to SON. CFL started to make a comeback here about two years ago but since then this has stopped in favour of Cosmo Lanterns for Sideroads, although whole areas of CFL will not be included in RF switching scheme although SON and SOX areas will.  Durham is installing RF switched SON lanterns on more rural roads with Cosmo around junctions.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:41 am 
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sotonsteve wrote:
I don't think metal halide will be the death of SON, I think LED will be the death of SON. All that is needed is for a few Chinese manufacturers to mass produce dirt cheap LED lanterns and export them to the rest of the world and things will change.

A very interesting point. It is happening with other manufacturing sectors, once the Chinese step in then you see a sudden change as the products offered are markedly cheaper than more local offerings.

My own posts about SON light has mainly focused on residential streets, because I believe there is no longer a place for such dirty light on Group B roads and footpaths.

However, my eyes were opened on my visits to Carlisle a few weeks back, and to Kendal on Thursday - with the latter being more important. ALL new lanterns being installed in Kendal, regardless of being Group A or B, are white light. I believe Carlisle has a few QSS's running PL-T lamps, but Kendal's side road lanterns are QSS's and Furyo's running what appear to be CDO lamps... and main road lanterns are primarily Opalo 3's using CDO lamps. The contractor (Amey) gets cost savings by purchasing the Opalo 3 which is cheaper than 150W lanterns by other companies, and so the marginally higher cost of lamps and slightly increased lamp change cycles is offset by the initial cost differences of the lanterns... and by time this differential has been wiped by the cost of the white light lamps and changing cycles, it is likely the prices of MH lamps will be reducing and their efficiency/lifespan will be increasing.
LED may well sound the death knell for SON in a few years time... but it doesn't mean that with the right combination of lantern and existing lamp technology SON lighting can't be wiped off the main road scene at the present time.

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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:16 am 
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Once LED comes mainstream, i.e. most councils are opting to use it in place of SON, then SON will more or less die out. I still think white light should be used in towns and villages, anything in between SON could be used but no more than 150 W, 600 W is too much. So if the wattage was lowered, less power is used in theory.

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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:13 am 
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Scott15 wrote:
Going a bit off topic here but what are the wattages on induction like? If they are similar to that of LED and with there long life they could well pose a threat to SON.

Induction lamps are very much a minor niche market. They have been around for more than 25 years - I remember them being demonstrated on Tomorrow's World back in the 80s. They have never caught on due to their cost and relatively low lumen output which isn't suitable generally for streetlighting purposes. They do offer superior lifetime over CFL but the high cost doesn't outweigh the lifetime advantage.

If you want long life time (in theory..) white light nowadays you choose LED. Induction is no threat to SON, LED will make induction obsolete.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:55 am 
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Okay thanks for that, I've never in person seen induction used. I have seen the price of the lamps though and even if they do have superior life the bulb price and efficiency would put anyone off.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:30 pm 
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The only thing that's vaguely similar to induction lighting and is available in high wattages is Plasma lighting. It's essentially an electrode less metal halide lamp driven by microwaves. It's very niche, but offered as a system for high bay lighting for instance. This is the company:

http://www.ceravision.com/page/high-efficiency-plasma

Interesting technology though.


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 Post subject: Re: The future of SON
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:29 pm 
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The HEP lamp sounds intresting, will it be any good though for use in a rural village though. In my own opinion SON should be limited to 200 W maximum. I do wonder where HEP would go in the lighting spectrum based on its efficiency.

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