No, I can't get every light that comes down, besides two B2255s is more than enough, I didn't know the light would be coming down either, I hoped it would just need a new lamp since it was only out for a few days
Yeah, there was a cycling Model 25 replaced by an OVX just north of the intersection just before this one got replaced. It seems more and more OVXs and 115s have been popping up around Brampton lately.
I always get surprised every now and then with long-out HPS fixtures and even cyclers. Sometimes, for some reason, a light will be cycling for a long time then it gets relamped, works for a night, then it's totall out and needs to be replaced.
And some HPS lights can be out for litterally years and still have good igniters and others will be out for a couple months and what do you know? the igniter is toast. It seems to be a trend here that the Coopers have really good igniters (there was a 250W Cooper OVZ that's been out for as logn as i can think back and when i reported it i thought for sure it was long dead but nope! Works with a new lamp!) The GE fixtures have by far the worst igniters I've ever seen. The older pre-90s ge igniters seem okay and the newer ones are the worst but leave a cycling lamp in a M-250R2 for more than a year or two and the igniter will be dead 9/10 times.
The Cooper OVZs installed by NGrid back around 2004-ish are still going. They chew through lamps like candy but those igniters never seem to quit. I find that the lamps tend to last longer in M-250R2s here and ever more so in the 113s from the 90s but the GE igniters are so fragile. It seems the 113s here tend to be removed more from bird nests and water leakage ruining them rather than from igniters dying. GEs loose their doors but NGrid will replace M-250R2 doors.
i'm sure they have plently of spare doors on hand from all the R2s they replace when they group-relamp the freeway lighting with individual PCs here. they'll relamp the freeways half-@$$ then not touch them for about 5 years and come back and relamp them if they don't light with new lamps replace them. and NGrid uses GE lights on the freeways so as you can imagine, more than half the lights have bad igniters and get replaced. NGrid seems to take much better care of the relay-controlled freeway lights though, spot/group relamping them about once a year (they will replace burned out lamps but working ones remain). They "spot/group" relamp the lights with idividual PCs too but by 5 year's time barely any lights still work.
I've gotten on NGrid's cas about a number of interchanges with lights that have individual PCs that are neglected and they said "we are working with the state DOT about repairing these lights". Then they finally relamped the interchanges i mentioned (i mentioned the most busy/dangerous interchanges where the light is needed most) and then they've been dooing an ongoing state-wide project of repairing all the state's freeway lights with individual PCs and the freeways are much better light. For a while they were replacing the ligths with relay-controlled M-400 FCOs on taller davit poles but those relighting projects have died down with the advent of their state-wide freeway relamping project.
It's really odd, when I did my co-op placement we repaired lights in this commercial area, almost all of the lights were 150 watt HPS R37s. Now what's weird is every light that was out (over 30 of them) needed a new lamp, PC and ignitor. I think it must've been a bad batch of ignitors from when the lights were originally installed. The good thing is Oakville Hydro never replaces cobras unless they are damaged, so we put in a bunch of new ignitors and ballast kits.
Hmm yeah odd that they all had bad igniters. nice that all the lights were repaired versus replaced. If i had the extra room i'd love an R37 but shipping would be a killer i bet. Too bad Powerlite never really caught on in the states. did you replaced all the PCs or just the ones that didn't work? I know a lot of times there are policies where the lamp and PC need to be changed together. NGrid has that policy or at least that's what they typically do. It seems that the quality of lamps is just dropping and IMO PCs could probably outlast two or three lamps. Heck, there are early 60s 175W MV GE NEMA heads up in new hampshire with the original BT28 GE lamps and 60s tall ripley photocells and the lamps are still as bright as new and the PCs are surprisingly more sensitive than new PCs, though i guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise since old school technology was built to last- FOREVER!
I'd love another R37 too, I should've picked up two that I had access to when I got my R7, oh well. I'm sure I could get one if I tried hard enough, then there's the issue of space. My basement is almost full of lights. Then again, Matt and Hanging Light are in my area, maybe they'd like a light or two.
And some HPS lights can be out for litterally years and still have good igniters and others will be out for a couple months and what do you know? the igniter is toast. It seems to be a trend here that the Coopers have really good igniters (there was a 250W Cooper OVZ that's been out for as logn as i can think back and when i reported it i thought for sure it was long dead but nope! Works with a new lamp!) The GE fixtures have by far the worst igniters I've ever seen. The older pre-90s ge igniters seem okay and the newer ones are the worst but leave a cycling lamp in a M-250R2 for more than a year or two and the igniter will be dead 9/10 times.
The Cooper OVZs installed by NGrid back around 2004-ish are still going. They chew through lamps like candy but those igniters never seem to quit. I find that the lamps tend to last longer in M-250R2s here and ever more so in the 113s from the 90s but the GE igniters are so fragile. It seems the 113s here tend to be removed more from bird nests and water leakage ruining them rather than from igniters dying. GEs loose their doors but NGrid will replace M-250R2 doors.
i'm sure they have plently of spare doors on hand from all the R2s they replace when they group-relamp the freeway lighting with individual PCs here. they'll relamp the freeways half-@$$ then not touch them for about 5 years and come back and relamp them if they don't light with new lamps replace them. and NGrid uses GE lights on the freeways so as you can imagine, more than half the lights have bad igniters and get replaced. NGrid seems to take much better care of the relay-controlled freeway lights though, spot/group relamping them about once a year (they will replace burned out lamps but working ones remain). They "spot/group" relamp the lights with idividual PCs too but by 5 year's time barely any lights still work.
I've gotten on NGrid's cas about a number of interchanges with lights that have individual PCs that are neglected and they said "we are working with the state DOT about repairing these lights". Then they finally relamped the interchanges i mentioned (i mentioned the most busy/dangerous interchanges where the light is needed most) and then they've been dooing an ongoing state-wide project of repairing all the state's freeway lights with individual PCs and the freeways are much better light. For a while they were replacing the ligths with relay-controlled M-400 FCOs on taller davit poles but those relighting projects have died down with the advent of their state-wide freeway relamping project.
I think Hanging Light would be interested in a light though, he made a post around a month or two ago asking where to find streetlights.