Quote from: Ash on August 23, 2016, 01:06:13 PM

The materials of same M250R2 are Aluminum and in the better case the refractor is made of Glass. Those materials take more than a few decades to degrade - Remind that Aluminum Oxide forms a film that protects from corrosion the rest of the luminaire body, and Glass is ageless anyway. The ingress protection of the luminaire is not high originally (usually IP44..IP54, and often as low as IP23 for the gear) - by design. For this protection level the gaskets dont have to be much more than some dry felt. Those gaskets can stay there for decades, without degrading to an extent that would impact the ingress protection level of the luminaire. The Magnetic gear is maintainable and replaceable. The "they are too old and worn out" excuse fails

As for being pleasant to look at, it is possible to argue which one's appearance is nicer in the day, but not possible to argue which one's appearance and performance is better in the night. LED lights have very high glare and inferior spectrum, which first wipes out any efficacy advantage over HID, and second makes them absolutey NOT pleasant to look at in the night

Don't forget the wiring can degrade over the decades. There will be time insulation on them will fall off and short out. Not an easy job to rewire the entire fixture in the field on the pole. (Even with Powerdoors. There's still wires on the fixture itself.)

Try rewiring a fixture outside in the sun while wearing thick high voltage gloves. The company forbids you to touch the fixture without the gloves. Not an easy job nor is it a speedy one.

Easier to remove entire fixture and have them refurbished in a shop that does that. Put a new/refurbished fixture in its place or a LED fixture. I know some utilities sends off fixtures to the refurbish shop.

Or here is a novel idea: Just leave them alone. They were working just fine and they replaced them with 160w LED flyswatters. The illumination is not any better, If anything, it is WORSE.
About retrofitting, there is another parking lot with huge HPS shoeboxes. They just retrofitted them with LED lamps (I think EYE LEDIOC lamps) and they are much brigher than the HPS shoeboxes. These were huge lights, and they are very high up (they are the vertical lamp kind). If they can retrofit those in 1 day, then they should not have any problem with some little cobraheads.

@Zarlog - they could have left those HPS alone. Except the owner of the parking lot could have wanted white light. Since you mentioned those being 150w HPS. I don't think retrofit MHs for S55 HPS ballasts exist. Owner could have been put off by the MHs explodey tendencies. So LEDs it is. We dunno the whole story why the owner wanted those LEDs.

If it was my parking lot. I'd get 150w MHs myself then disable igniters and use DX 175w MVs. If some laws says not to do that then LEDs. I'd use something from a reputable brand if stuck with LEDs.

@Zarlog - they could have left those HPS alone. Except the owner of the parking lot could have wanted white light. Since you mentioned those being 150w HPS. I don't think retrofit MHs for S55 HPS ballasts exist. Owner could have been put off by the MHs explodey tendencies. So LEDs it is. We dunno the whole story why the owner wanted those LEDs.

If it was my parking lot. I'd get 150w MHs myself then disable igniters and use DX 175w MVs. If some laws says not to do that then LEDs. I'd use something from a reputable brand if stuck with LEDs.

I should mention that these are those IP66 LED streetlights you see on ebay that cost around $75 each. Very cheaply made.

eBay LEDs?!?!?!? Thought so. Given the comment that some already have failed. Like I said before. If you're gonna use LEDs. Use those from a reputable brand.

Do I dare ask for pics of those eBay toys?

I have quite a few luminaires that were taken down from outdoor service, and were used there between 20..40 years

The wire isolation is degraded only where PVC wire have been exposed to lamp UV or in direct contact with hot parts (back of lamp reflector or ballast). The PVC wire was used in those spots only in some "in the field" hack jobs or in lower quality luminaires. All the good luminaires have the wiring tied in a way that keeps it away from hot areas, and the wire going to the hot or UV exposed parts is either Silicon isolated, Silicon in Glass fiber braid, or (in one model) something that looks like XLPE. Each of them is as good as new, clear and flexible and does not show any signs of aging

Only thing i can conclude is, that this problem should not exist in good luminaires that have been maintained properly



Maybe some luminaires (or even entire stretches of roads with them) do have a problem, and something have to be done

If replacement is needed then so be it, but this still does not answer the question, why replace with LED and not with HID (that performs better, and by a long shot better with new HID luminaires that have more advanced optics and sometimes more efficient gear too)



Zarlog :
sometimes you can't leave them alone. Maybe the Merc light there lasted for 40 years, but if after 40 years you find out that the isolation on the wires is in bad shape, it is a sign that it won't last much longer. So its better to replace the wiring than to let it short out at some unknown (but probably not too far) time in the future

But you can do this efficiently : Replace X luminaires with new ones or with some spares. Refurbish them. Then replace the next X with the refurbished first batch. Then the next X with the second batch. And so on



Owner put off by explodey MH thats possible, but he should not care if the shoeboxes are enclosed (he still might care tho without much justified reason). The more likely explanation i think is that he simply hears all day long LED in every place he comes to shop for lamps, so he chose them without too much consideration of everything

IP66 LED streetlights ? Funny that you mention it, i got today some second had "IP65" LED and EOLED floodlights and they dont look like they'd keep up their IP rating if thermally cycled a few times under rain

FGS, i'll upload mine at some point

eBay LEDs?!?!?!? Thought so. Given the comment that some already have failed. Like I said before. If you're gonna use LEDs. Use those from a reputable brand.

Do I dare ask for pics of those eBay toys?

That is a 50w version. the ones they installed look pretty much the same but they are larger and say "160" on the bottom.

@Zarlog - yep. Not happy with the owner myself. Why did he go with eBay LEDs? I'm sure he could have used MH shoeboxes with shielded bulbs. But no he has to go into eBay to buy these POS.

Let's hope that LED street lighting doesn't turn into Yardblasters with Corn COB Ebay LED bulbs.

Why not ? Serves well those who choose LED

Why not ? Serves well those who choose LED

Well, it's the ultimate in cheap;
Yardblasters are usually low quality with cheap materials
Corn On The COB LED bulbs are very cheap, dangerous, and low quality.

And there is the cheap that still lasts well enough and gives out good light, like the older blasters with the older lamps

In the end, if somebody choose cheap, i have mixed feelings about that. On one hand im glad when his choice of cheap blows up in his face. On the other hand still Earth did nothing wrong yet Earth have to pay the price for all this cheap (as well as the price of all this going green)

And there is the cheap that still lasts well enough and gives out good light, like the older blasters with the older lamps

In the end, if somebody choose cheap, i have mixed feelings about that. On one hand im glad when his choice of cheap blows up in his face. On the other hand still Earth did nothing wrong yet Earth have to pay the price for all this cheap (as well as the price of all this going green)

This would be modern cheap.