More PFI's starting.

[Dave]

Recently there's been loads of speculation about work being quoted for. From what i hear:

Birmingham is now replacing all its unadopted street lighting, hence lanterns like the Revo Hatfield and everything MBF is now going to be wiped out in its entirety.
Dudley is replacing 480 main road columns, and gradually its side road columns.
Sandwell are now in the midst of replacing ALL lighting to LED. I hear 3500 lanterns are soon to go.
Worcestershire are now replacing defective lanterns, even if its just a dead lamp. This will see all main road and side road lighting replaced by 2020 I expect

Only now for me is it really hitting home, just how close 100% LED street lighting across the country is to becoming a reality. It also makes me wonder why people are going out their way to rescue LED lighting, to me it just seems pointless. (but thats a debate for another day) I personally am going to be saving absolutely everything I can now, even if its for swaps and trades. As far as lighting goes, this really is our last chance to get what we want before it disappears forever. Its getting to the point now where us as collectors are becoming ever more validated, to one day tell the story of lighting from day one, when everything out there is only one light source. I just pray one day the good old SOX, SON, and MBF lamp will make its return back to our streets, wishful thinking at this moment.

Keep em lit!

[Kev]

I agree dave although I have just heard that cornwall are now relamping the cosmos as the nodes done work on the LED trays.

[AngryHorse]

I see something more though!, its not just a case of seeing SOX, SON, and MBF lamp making its return back to our streets, I fully expect the HID lamp to be totally extinct in the UK within another 10 years, there won`t be any, for anything, be it road lighting or indoor industrial lighting.

Look at whats happened in the last 20 years, 2 of the 3 big HID factories have been shut down and flattened to a pile of rubble, Hamilton will be next?, and thats not including the European ones!
I`m surprised SON have lasted this long, given how fast their being removed along with its low pressure counterpart?

That just leaves the world with poorly made Chinese lamps, and I reckon they will stop making them eventually?

[Ash]

LED became part of this less than 10 years ago. The factory closures in the period between 20 and 10 years ago cannot be attributed to LED in any way

Around that time, the same lamp types started being made in China, so it was mainly the Chinese factories getting to acceptable quality level, and the manufacturers starting sourcing the lamps from them

What happens next :

As LED takes over the demand for HID lamps goes down. It is more sensible that fewer lamp factories will remain, than that all lamp factories will remain and manufacture low quantities. As long as the remaining lamp factories are to stay, that is the best way things can get

We are however worried about them closing too a few years later

In this case, the best we can do is to track down and capture equipment from factories closing at the meanwhile - So that we will acquire the entire set of equipment to make what we want

And regarding whether anyone would want to use HID lamps

Municipalities are too deep in the LED bandwagon to make any sense to (atleast that is my impression. Based in part, on me personally trying to talk our town mayor off a PFI scheme 6 years ago. That deserves a post of its own)

But private users, and maybe administration of select objects in the municipal area, are a different story. Among the more sensible ones of them, what drives them to LED is not understanding of things like light quality/light control, and grossly wrong perception of how LED compares to other light sources in terms of energy use. If the 2 things are presented in sensible and clear way, i think there may be some interest in HID, of about the size that we as private lighting experts/electricians/(future lighting manufacturers ?) might be able to handle