I would've loved to do that 30 or more years ago. At the rate LED streetlights are being installed, it'll soon be the end of relamping, repairing & cleaning lights. It will be only fixture installation, replacement, occasional photocontrol replacement and wiring work. The one thing I'd really dislike about working for the power company would be having to go to work at night, in a rain or snowstorm, to fix downed high voltage power lines.
Well thats not completely true, I'v seen more HID installations than LED. when the did the change over here thats all they used was HPS and no LED's. I think once they realize how hard and exspensive it will be to get new LED parts for repair they'll go back to HID lighting. (Hopefully).
Yeah the LEDs themselves will outlast probably two or three drivers easily. I've seen some LED acorn lights replace HPS coach lights in a condo complex near me and they look like disco balls at night with little light hitting the ground and the top being dark, as the LEDs are pointed sideways.
I'm accualy planning on mounting my HOLOPHANE / AEL LANEVUE 35 watt LED on the other side of my pole when the weather gets better just to see what its all about in person, we don't have any in service around here.
I still install HID at work. Only a few test LEDs installed and so far they are all working fine. I'm changing out more newer HPS fixtures than older ones such as M-400 split doors and ITT 25's.
there's no LED street lights here but they're popping up in private parking lots, gas stations, and the Cranston Public Schools for exterior lighting. For canopy lighting, i actually like LED since there are many lights for an even distribution whereas with street lights, going from HID to LED is like relamping a PAR flood light fixture with spot light lamps.
southern california edison, my electric utility, still installs hid street lighting as standard. they can install a led street light at the city's request (and cost) but edison charges a higher tariff rate for leds than hps so not much led installations yet outside the city of los angeles.
Here I haven't seen any LED streetlights (other than a few test zones), however I have noticed more and more popping up in parking lots. My school actually had the HPS floods replaced with LEDs last summer. I have been noticing more and more Powerlites disappearing though.
The City of Vaughan is filled with Philips-Lumec LED streetlights in the side streets. Arterials and freeways which are maintained by separate companies are still HPS.
My city is still HPS though, aside from a dozen test fixtures that popped up in my neighbourhood last fall. The Powerlites here are still holding on but they're being replaced with AEL or Cooper when their ignitors fail.
BGE already has some LEDs and Baltimore City has gone LEDs but still have lots of HPS but lots of LEDs too.....PEPCO not as much but saw some test LEDs though...
I'm thinking of installing my Lithonia LVU led street light along with iether the existing 115 or the 325 before summer's end, not shure yet. Is BGE and Baltimore city still installing GE LEDs ?
I believe all of Howard county's poles are bronz I'v helped install a few of them when I worked for Benfield Electric. I personaly think bronz poles are ugly, But thats a wealthy county and they like to show it..
My power co. hasn't used any LED replacements they'r sticking with the good old cobraheads in fact they are replacing nema heads with cobrahead lights for private lighting.
My city is still HPS though, aside from a dozen test fixtures that popped up in my neighbourhood last fall. The Powerlites here are still holding on but they're being replaced with AEL or Cooper when their ignitors fail.