I live in NJ with PSE&G so there are some induction lamps and stupid solar panels on poles. Despite this, they are doing something else that is actually cool. Even though we do have some induction lamps here and there, and also the occasional LED lamp, the vast majority of streets are still lit by HPS! I have even seen cycling HPS lights being relamped! This is great, but do you know what is even better? PSE&G is currently replacing almost 50% of their poles around here (if I were to guess), and instead of replacing the HPS fixtures, they just reuse them! Now, I am well aware of the much increased luminous efficacy of street light LEDs because of human’s different vision properties at night even though the efficiency between the two is comparable, but who doesn’t like a good buzzing yellow cobrahead on a pole?

Has anyone else seen this near you? I hear that many utilities are keeping their HPS lamps, but here they are practically going out of their way to keep them in service. I feel so privileged to live with people that are lazy in a good way lol.

Also, there is an admiral’s hat fixture near me that was always dayburning, but the bulb just recently burned out. What do you think the chances are that they will slap a new photocell on it and relamp it with an LED bulb instead of replacing it? I hope they do that, but chances are probably slim.

PS: I extend my condolences to those of you living in neighborhoods that are not as accepting to older lighting technologies…

I know of a utility in PA that in 2024 put up a new Cooper OVX on a replacement pole. Old pole had a different HPS.

Yes, over here, SCE still relamps HPS if cycling or out and the ignitor isn't bad. Even missouts in cities that are LED are relamped as well. They installed new HPS cobraheads has spot replacements in cities that still use HPS until Cooper stopped making the last HPS cobraheads in 2024.

Not sure if they still do it, but they also kept any old arms and HPS lights when replacing wood poles. I say that as recently last year, a 1950s arm with a GE M-250R2 on a old pole got replaced by a new pole, arm, and an GE ERL1 when the road it on was redone, but before that, they were always keeping them.

I was in NJ a few years back and I saw some old M-250As on wood poles which I thought were MV, but they were 50w HPS. When I saw them (dusk), they never lit up, but I thought they were MV as the rest of the neighborhood had 50w HPS M-250R1s. When I looked again on Street View, they had '5' tags on them and I was shocked as they are old enough to not have NEMA tags, but they were clearly converted from MV at some point.

I'm not sure about that admiral's hat. Is it incandescent? If there's more than one in your area I suppose you could try reporting it and see what happens. If it's just the one, I'd probably just leave it if you still want to see it.

Occasionally a HPS cobrahead will get spot replaced with a (used) HPS cobrahead here but I also been noticing LED NXTs being used to spot replace HPS in some places. I think they still relamp fixtures though.

Toronto kept a lot of HPS in service and even installed new HPS luminaires until the end of 2023. I think their stockpile ran out then and by then the 125, their luminaire of choice was no longer available new. Even some of the cities that converted to LED a decade ago still have small amounts of HPS left that was seemingly skipped over and still maintained (as they're still mostly working).

There's a small number of MV era luminaires like early B2255s, Unistyle 400s, etc that got converted to HPS in the early 90s and are still in use.

I'm also impressed they decided to buy Cyclone Kanatas to use to replace the MH URB gumballs. From a casual onlooker they look the same and the choice of 3000K is quite nice. They're controlled by wireless controls so they all ramp on at once, kinda like how a series incandescent install would switch on.

I know of a utility in PA that in 2024 put up a new Cooper OVX on a replacement pole. Old pole had a different HPS.

Why do I feel like we're thinking of the same utility...? 

I live in NJ with PSE&G so there are some induction lamps and stupid solar panels on poles. Despite this, they are doing something else that is actually cool. Even though we do have some induction lamps here and there, and also the occasional LED lamp, the vast majority of streets are still lit by HPS! I have even seen cycling HPS lights being relamped! This is great, but do you know what is even better? PSE&G is currently replacing almost 50% of their poles around here (if I were to guess), and instead of replacing the HPS fixtures, they just reuse them! Now, I am well aware of the much increased luminous efficacy of street light LEDs because of human’s different vision properties at night even though the efficiency between the two is comparable, but who doesn’t like a good buzzing yellow cobrahead on a pole?

I've noticed this also with PSE&G. I travel through South Jersey (Maple Shade / NJ-73 area) on a bi-weekly basis, and have noticed the staggering number of vintage luminaires with HPS retrofits and recently-relamped MV.

One thing I've noticed with them now, unfortunately, is that they have basically stopped maintenence entirely on all MV luminaires in their utility range. If you check their lighting portal (where you would go to request a fixture be relamped) they are marked as 'Deferred' or something along those lines. Though, for a long time, they were one of the only major utilities that I know of who actively relamped MV instead of scrapping the fittings entirely. All good things must come to an end, I guess, but at least HPS luminaires will stick around for a while.

I'm not sure about that admiral's hat. Is it incandescent? If there's more than one in your area I suppose you could try reporting it and see what happens. If it's just the one, I'd probably just leave it if you still want to see it.

Yes it is incandescent. I went on to report a cycling HPS nearby and saw that the admiral’s hat had already been reported, so it’s days are probably numbered…

One thing I've noticed with them now, unfortunately, is that they have basically stopped maintenence entirely on all MV luminaires in their utility range. If you check their lighting portal (where you would go to request a fixture be relamped) they are marked as 'Deferred' or something along those lines. Though, for a long time, they were one of the only major utilities that I know of who actively relamped MV instead of scrapping the fittings entirely. All good things must come to an end, I guess, but at least HPS luminaires will stick around for a while.

I only know of one MV in my neighborhood, but it is still bright blue, not green, so it has definitely been relamped at some point (probably long in the past). I also don’t predict it ever being relamped again, probably just flat-out replaced. It is pretty unfortunate because I only know of three clear mercury vapor lamps even close to my town, but only one of them is a street light. I always have my own, but it isn’t as cool as seeing it “out in the wild”.