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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:34 am 
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Awesome write up David. Wish Leeds would expand their LED lights from the City Centre!

PS, you should watermark your photos!


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 3:54 pm 
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Stelmer wrote:
Awesome write up David. Wish Leeds would expand their LED lights from the City Centre!
Thank you Stelmer! If I recall correctly, Leeds was one of those places that went for a PFI back in the days when there was much more money around, and as a result of installing power-hungry lanterns, the electricity bill shot up. Essex's PFI was due to start in 2010 but was cancelled when Labour were booted out of power in the 2010 General Election. As a result of the cancellation, Essex still retains the vast majority of its old lighting stock and I imagine the power consumption of the county's lights has barely changed since then, but it didn't stop Essex County Council pursuing an arguably aggressive part-night lighting policy. I think this LED trial was probably borne out of the backlash.

If the LED trial is deemed a failure, I wonder if we will get back all the vintage ELECO, GEC, Philips, Phosco and Thorn lanterns we are currently losing!

Stelmer wrote:
PS, you should watermark your photos!
I know I really ought to, but it's difficult to do without spoiling the image. I do watermark some with my web site logo, but at an opacity of 1-2% so it is barely visible.

Thankfully my pictures start out at 12 megapixels and around 12MB in size, and by the time I upload them for online use, they are around 0.3 megapixels and around 0.05MB in size, so I think there would only be one winner if there was an ownership or copyright dispute.

I take the view that my photographs are not big enough or of a high-enough quality to enable anyone else to make money from them, but I could be wrong. Deliberately reducing the size and quality of the pictures for online use also has the benefit of making them upload quicker on online forums.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:25 pm 
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What's gone is gone. I'm trying to work out how an LED trial would not be a success. It would only be deemed a failure if Essex CC judged the capital costs to be too expensive, or if it were found that the LED lighting was not as reliable as they wished. In terms of quality of light, running costs and maintenance costs, LED has some notable advantages over other light sources, assuming the correct product is specified.

Whilst a modern SOX lantern with low loss gear may be relatively energy efficient, the cost of replacement SOX lamps is quite high. SOX lamps are becoming very expensive. They cost significantly more than SON lamps. I suspect that's a large factor that drove Hertfordshire to embark on a main road LED drive, as main road SOX lamps are the most expensive of all. So in terms of maintenance, Essex is actually forking out a lot of money on relamping. SOX has also lost ground in Essex to SON in recent years, and we all know about how SON isn't the most energy efficient street lighting that could be installed. What I'm saying is, Essex isn't being the most clever when it comes to saving money. It's saving money on lantern replacements, but what is installed isn't the cheapest street lighting in terms of running costs or maintenance costs. If energy costs were that important, Essex would have gone for compact fluorescent. CFL lanterns are relatively cheap as well.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:07 pm 
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In the 2011-2014 period Herts was indeed using WRTL Libras and Thorn Celests as casual replacements in all side roads, and even on some main roads, but the new LEDs have put an end to that and now even new side road lighting is going to be LED. IMO they should be focusing on replenishing the side road instead of main road lanterns as those are the streets that are the least uniform and where most of the savings could be made. Keeping SOX on main roads only is a better idea.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 12:56 am 
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sotonsteve wrote:
SOX lamps are becoming very expensive.


In the days when SOX was pretty much the universal choice for local authorities, manufacturers and wholesalers had a good, stable market for their products. I recall that the lighting departments in my area were generally supplied through a purchasing consortium of several authorities. Buying in a greater bulk would achieve better savings in the cost of SOX lamps, than on a single purchase order from a single authority. Whether this continues now is unclear, especially with the PFIs etc.

The other situation now however, is that SOX is a threatened species hereabouts, therefore a manufacturer that finds itself gaining an increasing share of this diminishing market is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.

At the end of the day, the price of lamps is based on their production run quantity - more output, cheaper price. Will LEDs go the same way?

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 3:42 am 
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Having just caught up on the last few pages here, the new LED lighting looks interesting - though I'm not too sure about the 'hump' design on the Amphera. But TBH I'm more interested in seeing somebody save that Eleco with the 'W' bowl.
Likewise over on Clacton sea front where only three extremly-ornate columns remain, attempts should ideally be made to save the lanterns at least - if not one entire complete bracket set (I can just imagine such a bracket standing in Claire's garage!)

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:53 am 
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Yes it would be great if some could be saved.


Last edited by Beta 5 on Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 9:29 pm 
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sotonsteve wrote:
Whilst a modern SOX lantern with low loss gear may be relatively energy efficient, the cost of replacement SOX lamps is quite high. SOX lamps are becoming very expensive. They cost significantly more than SON lamps. I suspect that's a large factor that drove Hertfordshire to embark on a main road LED drive, as main road SOX lamps are the most expensive of all. So in terms of maintenance, Essex is actually forking out a lot of money on relamping.
Yes, I admit that in earlier answers I hadn't factored in the cost of replacement SOX lamps, but this was in the belief that the energy they saved outweighed the cost of the lamp. But as the price of SOX lamps has recently soared, such a belief is now mistaken and, if the upfront costs of LED conversion could be found, Essex and Hertfordshire may well call time on all its SOX sometime between now and the end of the decade.

Having said that, the current improving economic situation may go two ways - more money around that will negate the increasing cost of SOX lamps, so Essex and Herts can regularly shell out for new ones as they currently do; or more money around that can be spent on new LED lanterns, safe in the knowledge that such lanterns won't require new bulbs and are almost "fit and forget" (or even a third way - the next government will continue to squeeze Local Authority budgets and Essex and Herts will struggle on as they currently are - some LED here and there but no comprehensive catch-all scheme, and SOX where we can't afford to do anything else for the time being).

In other Essex street lighting news, the CMS computer said "no" to Harlow Council's offer to pay Essex County Council to have its street lights kept on after midnight.

It comes one day after Colchester Council also voted to offer to pay Essex County Council to have its street lights kept on after midnight.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 10:47 pm 
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.


Last edited by Beta 5 on Fri Oct 05, 2018 6:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 10:04 pm 
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As of next week ECC will be switching the street lights off at 1am instead of midnight


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