ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Street-lighting?

Now I've checked it up: Most street lighting is mercury in Sweden.

Are mercury vapor lamps the ones that give out a sulfurous blue-yellow light that makes your skin look green - like you were dead?

They used to use a bulb like that in various passageways in the New York City Subway...they have been replaced with a yellow bulb - sodium, I presume?

Some huge warehouses, school gyms, etc. use these bulbs that give out a bright white light - sometimes it borders on ORANGE to the point it's PAINFUL (at least to me).

What is this one?

Also, why is it that every time I walk by one of these high-intensity weird lights the thing blinks off?

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 04-10-2003).]

Bjarney, I'm not really sure. It was a long time ago so I don't remember specifically what they looked like. I was quite surprised that they survived as long as they did. I do actually remember feeling kind of sad the day the utility truck came around and replaced them! But, they were getting hideously expensive to maintain and operate (and electricity is about 10-12 cents a KWH here in New England), so they had to go.

Bjarney,
That's true, Metal-Halide does have a rather long warm-up/strike time, but so do most other Gas Discharge lighting sources, obviously excluding Neon and Fluoro tubes.

Mike

he he yeah you are correct sevnnyc;

blue-green colour is mercury vapour
blue-white colour is metal halide

that is very caratisic of them

merci marc

Just about all the public street lights in my area are sodium, although metal halide are becoming more common in privately owned areas, e.g. supermarket parking lots.

Now I come to think of it, it must be many years since I've seen a mercury-vapor type of light. I've lived in rural areas a long time now and avoid big cities whenever I can, and as I recally the mercury lamps were most often found in urban areas.

I'm not sure that series street lighting was ever employed in Britain. Most is just run straight off the 3-phase distribution lines with either timer or photocell control. Some older installations used a fifth pilot wire to close contactors at each light.

There's nothing beautiful about our flourescent battens. A grey metal top and a plain glass bottom, and 2 flourescent tubes.
There are some retro poles lights that look like the standard Dublin type, only a bit less ornate.
In 1924 the first electrical street lighting was installed. 44V/200W incandescent in series. In 1934 and 1935 first mercury vapor and sodium lights were tested.
In 1950 the first flourescents were installed. In 1956 the first regular Gas Discharge lights were installed. In 1962 the last gas light was extinguished.



Today Vienna has got the following lights:

105 incandescents
198.584 flourescents
1.371 sodium low-pressure
32.810 sodium high-pressure
7.140 mercury vapor

There's some type of lamp that gives off a bright white light, but while heating up the light is intensely green. Are these mercury vapor too? They give off a very intense light and were commonly used in school gyms about 10 years ago. Now they went back to flourescents, much nicer to the eyes.

SvenNYC.

With regard to your question about the sodium/metal halide lights, `going out` during there illumination time,

This is an easy one, most of the time it is due to lamp failure,
the lamp will strike normally but then will get progressively brighter, then will go out, in about 5 to 10 min the lamp will re strike and the whole pattern starts again,

there is safety feature designed into all high pressure lamps to protect them from exploding,

if the lamp is not replaced it can cause premature failure of the lamps control gear.

Hope this helps.

John H

Ragnar, the lamp you posted looks like it works on gas. I thought you said Vienna has no more gas-powered street lamps....so I guess that's an old picture?

Exactly. This is the last gas street light. i posted it just for nostalgic reasons.