ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Street ligfht voltage, gated community

My wife has a new career, site manager in a big gated community and she wanted some advice. They want power in a golf course rest room. It is about 800' (maybe 1000 by the time you get pipe in the ground where you have to go) from the guard shack across 2 private roads so I suggested that is not really that attractive an option. There is a street light right next to the building as part of ones that loop around the community with a christy box right there. It does look like these have individual photo cells for each post.
What voltage would I likely find there and is this a viable option. They probably only want a single 20a circuit for a couple lights and a couple fart fans. I am guessing it may be 277 on the street light but I fear it could be higher. What are these typically?

Greg:

There is one condersation i may have to speak up on this issuse right there is the street lumiaires setup i belive they were sized for correct voltage drop for the run but if you add this to the street lumiaire it can screw up the voltage drop depending on which way it runs.

typically most resdentail street lumaires useally wired for 120 or 240 volt single phase voltage but some do wired on 277 single phase as well but not too widespread unless you are on commeral lot or commercal feed [ 480Y-277 Volts system ]

Myself i did see few place what you been describing the result was pretty messy after they hook up a single 20 amp circuit but they did not account the voltage drop in the whole system

you may have to check the voltage at the post base to verify it but hard part is find the source to first lumiaire then go from there

Merci , Marc

Map it out, and check the loads, you may be able to put a transformer out there, and solve the problem.

It's not unheard of for street lighting circuits to have a rather unique transformer / wiring arrangement as part of the way to deal with voltage drop and damaged lights.

I really would not attempt to change the lighting circuit, in any way, unless I was absolutely certain as to how the circuit was wired. It goes beyond anything as simple as taking reading from your meter.

Otherwise ... and here you know the site, and I don't .... I'd consider planning for more power in the future. I can see there being a vending machine, a heater, and even a snack bar added at some future date.

The more I am finding out about this the less likely it is an option. They may have a flat rate (not metered) deal on the lights from FOP. I told them they should really find out what the deal really is and also to find out what FPL wants to just set a meter on the bathroom building. I figure getting under those roads will probably cost as much or more than a drop (underground lateral) from FPL since it looks like thery are already on the near side of the closest road.
Thanks for your help

I will agree with Reno- Stay away from the street lighting. I know it seems to be the easy fix but I still think its a bad idea. In my area a lot of the street lighting is 277 volt. They are usually wired on a 3 pole breaker. 1st pole uses phases A & B- 2nd pole uses phases B & C - 3rd pole uses phases C & A. Then it gets repeated this way. It keeps everything pretty balanced.
I think the best way is to run a large conduit and figure on pulling a large enough wire for a 100 amp sub panel. You may only use 20 amps now but in the future ...

I doubt this will ever get much load. It is just a "2 holer" bathroom in the middle of a golf course. The biggest load I can see would be a water cooler ... but I could be wrong. They might go for a couple window shakers or something. The more I think about this the stronger I am leaning towards getting FPL to drop a meter there if they will do it. I am not sure how much more I am getting involved but I think the next step is to talk to the FPL engineer.
I looked again on the satellite photos and plotted the course from the guard shack, based on the published length of the closest golf hole to get the scale. It looks like about 700 feet using the likely path we will have to take and we would also be boring under 2 private roads. I can't imagine that is cheaper than the FPL option.
I really get the idea these folks were trying to sneak this in without a permit and I wouldn't touch that with a 700' pole.

Two fans and a water cooler, in Florida, in a small building used only during the day by folks playing golf?
How about a solar panel setup?

Alan

I blame Bob Vila for most of this...

His idea of electricity is to just find somewhere where there is power and "tap off" to feed something else.

In my experience, anytime that something sounds simple generally isn't.

Besides, little loads tend to get bigger as the design progresses. The little water cooler suddenly gets some new friends like a pop machine, candy machine, then someone wants ice cream, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

I would suggest that the 'tap the nearest power' idea get deep sixed; and the little building fed the right way (with its own feeder/branch circuit(s)).

Solar is looking more attractive the more I look at it. They really only want a fan and light ... during the day