Hello all, new member here, seeking knowledge and guidance!

So I bought an (original) Kensington and Chelsea electric street lamp. Its going to be installed as a garden feature, and hopefully I can get the light running too. Picture attached.

Not knowing anything about street lighting, but confident with household DIY and electrics, I imagined it could just run off the mains like a household lamp. But when I opened it up, there's some kind of modulator unit ... picture also attached.

It came with 2 Osram Vialox bulbs, but neither worked. I then tried it with a regular household (compact fluorescent) bulb. It went on for a few seconds, then there was a click and it went off.

So now I have many questions .... The ballast is marked as 220/240 volts, so I guess on the street it used regular mains electricity. Is the purpose of the unit to "fire up" a particular type of bulb, and it won't work with regular household bulbs? I guess a street lamp must generate a lot more light than household, so is this the purpose? If so, and I only want a low level illumination in the garden, maybe I should forget trying to use it and bypass the unit and wire in a regular bulb. Would I get kicked off the forum as a philistine if I did that?

Can anyone shed any light (I bet that is not the 1st time that pun has been used here)?

Laurence

If your mains voltage is 220/240v the fixture will run fine on that. The "modulator unit" is correctly called a ballast, and the two cylinders are the ignitor/starter, which starts the lamp, and the capicitor, which makes it more efficient. Did you try the lamps in the fixture, or just in a random socket? They won't work without the ballast. And you could bypass the ballast if you just want to run a small bulb (CFL, LED, Incandescant) in it.

Hard to tell from your pictures, but if the fixture has a photocell, it will only come on in the dark.

wil say NAV-E / SON lamps like you are holding are the "orange" coloured ones when running IF that IS what you want then all 3 components are required to make the fixture work
the white BOX is the choke coil OR Ballast that controls the current through the lamp
the 2 cylinders you have are the igniter to START the lamp and a capacitor for improved power usage
if you want to run a "normal" household light bulb you can remove / disconnect ALL the parts inside and take the mains power to the socket wiring and insert a normal lamp
following the existing wiring from the connection block if it ONLY goes to the components you pictured there is NOT photocell and will always run when power is supplied
IF the wiring from the connection point runs to a unit attached to the outside body of the light fixture then it has a photo cell and if left wired in it will ONLY light when dark out and go out again when the sun rises and that would be wiring like a "normal" switch inline to the socket where it connects to the ballast if rewiring for a house hold globe and want to KEEP the automatic night light on/off operation

Thanks for all the replies - all useful.

I tried the original (Osram Vialox) bulbs in the lamp and in a household socket and they didn't work in either case. However, thanks for the pointer about the photocell ... I found it and maybe that's the reason it dosen't work. Will experiment later.

If the 2 original bulbs do turn out to be dead, what do I have to buy to replace? Anything marked NAV-E/SON?

Thanks again

If the 2 original bulbs do turn out to be dead, what do I have to buy to replace? Anything marked NAV-E/SON?

yes same wattage NAV / SON / HPS
the -E is the shape of the bulb -E for the round "elliptical" -T is tubular shaped 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275355044978
here is a replacement lamp on fleebay UK

To operate it with the photocell, you can use a shorting cap or blanking unit, or cover the eye (clear part) of the photocell with a cloth or something else (replacement cells can be purchased on ebay.