Failing Light in MK
This rather smart looking street light is a Holophane 'Denver Sweep', one of many that were installed in the centre of Milton Keynes about 20-months ago in a scheme to update the City's street lighting and making it more affective and efficient. The new system, which includes smart electronic ballasts from SELC, Ireland (which power the 150 watt SON high pressure sodium lamps) and enterprise monitoring software from Streetlight Vision, is based on LONWORKS technology; an open, extensible architecture that lets control devices from multiple manufacturers interact with one another. The control-gear used in the lanterns is an electronic low-frequency type ballast that is interfaced with a transceiver, this in turn communicates with a central computer. The system is able to automatically identify individual lamp and ballast failures, measure energy use, monitor running hours and voltage, and enables remote command switching through the power line network,
However, despite all this modern technology, the one thing that these new streetlights haven’t been is reliable. I understand that the problem stems from the high failure rate of the electronic control gear installed within the lanterns. And quite often you will see the overhead repair crews replacing the defective gear in these lanterns for new units.
Not as energy efficient, but so much more reliable, you can't beat an old fashion wire-wound ballast.
More here:
holophane.eu.com/news/july_2007.htm
www.lonmark.org/connection/case_studies/2008/200802_UK_St...
Failing Light in MK
This rather smart looking street light is a Holophane 'Denver Sweep', one of many that were installed in the centre of Milton Keynes about 20-months ago in a scheme to update the City's street lighting and making it more affective and efficient. The new system, which includes smart electronic ballasts from SELC, Ireland (which power the 150 watt SON high pressure sodium lamps) and enterprise monitoring software from Streetlight Vision, is based on LONWORKS technology; an open, extensible architecture that lets control devices from multiple manufacturers interact with one another. The control-gear used in the lanterns is an electronic low-frequency type ballast that is interfaced with a transceiver, this in turn communicates with a central computer. The system is able to automatically identify individual lamp and ballast failures, measure energy use, monitor running hours and voltage, and enables remote command switching through the power line network,
However, despite all this modern technology, the one thing that these new streetlights haven’t been is reliable. I understand that the problem stems from the high failure rate of the electronic control gear installed within the lanterns. And quite often you will see the overhead repair crews replacing the defective gear in these lanterns for new units.
Not as energy efficient, but so much more reliable, you can't beat an old fashion wire-wound ballast.
More here:
holophane.eu.com/news/july_2007.htm
www.lonmark.org/connection/case_studies/2008/200802_UK_St...