As of right now, these are powered with Mercury Vapor lamps.  As the ban on MV lamps comes into effect, are they going to replace them with MH?

I'm curious what's Austin's moon tower??

i live a hour from Austin Tx, still Texas still MV capitol
Of USa as there still plenty of mercs arouund.
They prollly will keep them MV as long as they can
I hope.

When I moved to Eldorado, IL, there were tons of Mercury Vapor fixtures operating.  Now, about 50% of those have been replaced with 100W HPS in town.  The Mercs on the highway, save for one or two have all been replaced with M250s or M400s in the past 2 years.  It's as if this town, or Ameren Illinois are trying to get rid of all MVs.  It really blows.  Even on a street where 1 MV exists, it's not the same, because the others are HPS, and the MVs that do exist, 99% of those are pretty dim.  About 3 years ago, I watched them take a dayburner MV, and replace it with a 100w HPS.  The photocell on there dated back to 1974, and since they usually replace the photocells when they replace the bulbs, I am guessing that the bulb itself, and fixture were from 1974.  Lasted until 2012.  Almost 40 years.

We still have tons of mercs here in Springfield Illinois. They only get replaced if the ballast Burns up or a pole gets taken out by a car. If the lamp lasted that long, it must've been a westy lifeguard or good old pre Mexico/China sylvania.

40 years would mean that the lamp did over 116,000 hours at 8 hours per day. Not very profitable for the manufacturer, huh?

Not only that, but the lamp itself was still pretty bright.  It was an old Westinghouse lamp.

I would argue that Dallas Texas is the MV Capital of Texas. The entire downtown is lit with 1000 and 400w MV and also 175 and 100w MV. Lots of streets still have MV in massive numbers, and we have clamshells and gumballs in MV flavor.

Newton, TX.  Not a gold light in sight! 

About the moontowers if anyone needs to know..they originally had carbon-arc lamps.

http://glasstire.com/2009/12/12/serial-killers-and-stoners-10-facts-about-austins-moonlight-towers/

https://twitter.com/austinenergy/status/585524231280185346

About the moontowers if anyone needs to know..they originally had carbon-arc lamps.

http://glasstire.com/2009/12/12/serial-killers-and-stoners-10-facts-about-austins-moonlight-towers/

https://twitter.com/austinenergy/status/585524231280185346

it says that they used to have carbon arc lamps then they switched to massive incandescent lamps, and then they switched to mercs and they are still in use today. It also says that the original carbon lamps had a similar color to the MV lamps. Interesting... I wonder what kind of incandescent bulbs were used?

Quote from: lights*plus on March 05, 2016, 12:31:33 AM

About the moontowers if anyone needs to know..they originally had carbon-arc lamps.

http://glasstire.com/2009/12/12/serial-killers-and-stoners-10-facts-about-austins-moonlight-towers/

https://twitter.com/austinenergy/status/585524231280185346

it says that they used to have carbon arc lamps then they switched to massive incandescent lamps, and then they switched to mercs and they are still in use today. It also says that the original carbon lamps had a similar color to the MV lamps. Interesting... I wonder what kind of incandescent bulbs were used?

Lighthouse bulbs?

From some videos I've seen of guys doing maintenance on these, there are very old reflector-type fixtures with mogul base sockets.  The MV ballasts are lashed onto the arms of the fixtures.  These look like the original 1920s from when the arc lamps were replaced with incandescent.

Matt

From some videos I've seen of guys doing maintenance on these, there are very old reflector-type fixtures with mogul base sockets.  The MV ballasts are lashed onto the arms of the fixtures.  These look like the original 1920s from when the arc lamps were replaced with incandescent.

Matt

Can you post a link to the video?

Everybody check out the link with adequate pics?: http://www.andymattern.com/works/photographs/moonlight-towers/

Here's a closup of three.

Very imposing.. Not sure I'd like to live near one of them.