Rodalco,
here in the UK most street lighting is controlled either by timeclock (a very old method here, and a Photocell set up on suburban streets.
the main roads in and around the area a re always photcells on each pole, they are usually fed via there own supply that is somtimes tapped from the local cabling in the roadway.
some new installations jave there own cabling going back to a connection box by the side of the street. this is the norm for the side streets and suburban roadways.
the highways (motorways) are diferent, some have a control cabinate for up to 30 190 watt Low Pressure Sodium (SOX) or 400/100 watt Metal Halide or White Sodium these are again in banks of 30 or 40 fittings on poles or cantenary suspension to the centre divider.
the supply is metered on highways but not on surburban streets and the local authoriyty pays for the installation and the POCO p[ays a low rate for lighting them (from what i have been told, please correct me if i am wrong on this)
the types of lighting we have are as follows
surface streets, 150 watt / 250 watt metal halide / high pressure sodium (SON)
side streets, low pressure sodium (SOX) usually 35 watt or 55 watt
high ways, 190 watt LOw Pressure Sodium or 400 / 1000 watt Metal Halide (HQI)
there are still some Mercury Vapour lamps (MBF)out here and some Mercury Blended Lamps (MBFU) the only good thing with MBFU is that there aint no control gear there connected direct to the supply via a fusable link in the pole.
we used to have ordinary 100watt incandesant (GLS) rough service lamps on a pole with small square mirror reflectors,in the lense area above, these over the last 30 years have been updated to mercury and the sodium of Metal halide.
the GLS lamp standrtds as they were known usually end up on peoples drive ways converted to mercury, they had no lamp protection just a bare lamps in all weathers !!!
kids with catapults used to practice breaking them!!!!
ans steeling th timeclocks or adjsuting the on and off tiles, it was funny when the street had a power outage an the clocks all neede to be reset !!!
Britspark
