At a local park, their outdoor lighting consisted of MH shoebox lights on tall poles, and incandescent path lights. I emailed the manager, suggesting that they switch to LED lighting and they did! They converted all the interior lights and outdoor lights. Unfortunately, the path lights were not planned well.
The fixtures have an Edison base in the bottom, and “fins” to direct the light down. But they used uni-directional retrofit lamps. So the light is shining in the sky, and in people faces, giving them headaches. Instead of lighting the ground and greens of the mini golf course. Does anyone know of uni-directional LED lamps that direct light toward the socket of the lamp, instead of out the top? Maybe by placing the heatsink at the top of the lamp.
There are over 200 lamps installed that they spent over $1000 on. Maybe once they get more complaints, I will offer to re-lamp one or two holes to try out better lamps, but I don’t know if I could bulk resell the current lamps and recover enough money.

But why did you email them about switching to LED?

But why did you email them about switching to LED?

To save electricity and reduce environmental impact.

Quote from: wattMaster on August 22, 2016, 03:03:39 PM

But why did you email them about switching to LED?

To save electricity and reduce environmental impact.

That's a good thing to do, but LED isn't really ready yet for high volume outdoor lighting.
Maybe in the future when better LED lights are developed.

I know what kind of path lights you are talking about. I would suggest using LED filament lamps as they have the same distribution pattern as a typical incandescent.

Quote from: wattMaster on August 22, 2016, 03:03:39 PM

But why did you email them about switching to LED?

To save electricity and reduce environmental impact.

They won't last long, and the environmental impact of LEDs is much greater then the MHs that you told them to replace. When they fail, more then likely the entire fixture will be trashed thus making MORE waste. Not to mention, the blue light peak that interferes with sleep patterns!
Gotta watch what you post, as most people here frown upon telling city's to put up LEDs when most members here don't like them for street/park lighting!

You may just have to wait until the current lamps reach EOL and replace them one by one.

You may just have to wait until the current lamps reach EOL and replace them one by one.

And replace them back to MH

We're talking about the (formerly) incandescent fixtures. I would go with filament LEDs as I said before. Those also tend to have good heat dissipation so they should be OK even in enclosed fixtures.

We're talking about the (formerly) incandescent fixtures. I would go with filament LEDs as I said before. Those also tend to have good heat dissipation so they should be OK even in enclosed fixtures.

Oh, I thought they meant the metal halides. I hope that is something a true lighting enthusiast would never do.

Well even the metal halides were converted, but those fixtures apparently have no issues.

For one round (to buy time) go for the filament LED's (the only option I'm aware of to be really compatible with the incandescents), but then look for some decent purpose made LED lantern (the best way) and/or (if the lanterns are custom made and can not be replaced) more thorough conversion (removing the socket and installing the LED modules with heat sinks there, all aimed according to the need; you will suffice with about half of the power and have way longer life than the filament LED's).

What wattage were they using for the old incandescent? 

Decorative Incandescents are usually low power anyway

Where not used as the main light source, they can be replaced with eqiuvalent LED filaments without much difference, but also the effect on the overall energy bill would be insignificant anyway (as the Incandescents were not responsible for much of it in the 1st place)

Where used as the main light source, there is no possible retrofit for the Incandescents. The light of low power Incandescents is dim and "romantic", but to provide also usefull light, it must be of a spectrum which is especially good on the eyes at so low color temperature and light level. There is no other light source that provides this, including 2500/2700K LED filaments. Using a retrofit light source for the same Lm output at 2500/2700K breaks visibility, using anything brighter or higher K breaks the romantic ambiance while still not necessarily providing adequate visibility :

 - Place lit dimly, "romantically" with 40W Incandescent per unusually large area (one that would normally be lit by say 70W MH)

 - Since a retrofit cannot completely provide the same mbience, the lighting scheme for the place (the appearance of the place when illuminated) is to be changed. The change will break the original ambiance, and since the new scheme is brighter, it may even not save anywhere near the expected energy savings



The MH obviously cannot be replaced with anything better, if some savings are wanted there, step down the power a bit or change to CMH