AEs doesn't seem to have cycling problems around here...only the Coopers....and now I wonder, are those replaced maybe because it now has electronic ballast? This is the case in NYC, they ordered fixtures with electronic ballasts..

I hope they are not electronic ballasts! They'd crap out rather fast especially if left dayburning for any ammount of time with sun shining on it
also most electronic ballasts have EOL protection so there is no cyclyling

Yet just just standard CWA ballasts, just about every 250 watt 115 I have seen installed in the past year already cycles

Now I know the problem....the problem here is simple...AE 115 isn't really a good fixture to use on 250 watt, they should use the medium sized fixtures for 250 watt HPS, a 250 watt HPS in a small fixture are more likely to cycle sooner due to too much heat build up and reflecting back to arc tube....

Our AE 115s only are 100 and 150 watt and the 250 and 400 watt are used in GE M-400A3.....so what they should be doing is using a bigger fixture for 250 watt will help the problem!

I have also been told from a friend who services streetlights is the fact the 150 watt posttops that have a metallic house side shield so cluse to the lamp tend to cycle early too! Not as much of a problem for 100 watt or 150 watt WITHOUT the shield

I totally agree with you on using a medium fixture for 200 watt + lamps, about the post tops, the only real post tops here that are commonly used are the Powerlite Twist-Paks which I have never seen cycle, they either die, of just glow dimly

The same thing happens here too, they replaced some old OV25s, OV15s, and Powerlites with OVFs, OVXs, 115s, and 125s when I'm pretty sure the fixture either needed a new lamp or at the most a new ignitor.

Not that I'm against them but I don't like replacing 200-250w HPS medium fixtures with small fixtures and/or drop lens fixtures with FCO.

I'm not too against them replacing lights with dead ballasts missing doors ect, but if its a ignitor capacitor, refractor or lamp that needs replacing then theres no reason not to fix it.

Well for my area, if any fixture has a bad cap, it will be removed and replaced with new fixture, but what do they do with the old one, it depends on the fixture, if its a MV, of course its scrapping time, if its a HPS....depends....they may refurbish it and fix it up. As for ignitor, a lot of the current fixtures has easy replaceable plug in and unplug ignitors, plus the linemens sometimes, not always, but sometimes if an old fixture has a bad ignitor, they will remove the old ignitor, put a new ignitor socket in and place the replaceable ignitor in the fixture, though it depends on the lineman, the time, the traffic of the location of the light. I know sometimes fixtures get replaced due to bad PC socket, and even though sometimes PC socket gets replaced, but sometimes time is an issue, esp. When they have waaaay too many fixtures to deal with ahead of the time!!! Now as for needing relamping....beats me LOL If new lamp solves the problem, then we all are happy, but if lamp didn't solve problem...them they will figure out what's wrong! For refractors, if a refractor is available and they have the correct size that matches, then they will leave it alone. I know some linemen here will sometimes save a door or parts of older fixtures to save for any other fixtures that lost a door, or a part or whatever, saves the utilty money!!!

Replacing a capacitor is really easy so I don't see why they don't do it here, the irritating thing is I have seen perfectly good functional lights replaced for no explainable reason, its annoying

not as easy as you think for replacing caps, there's actually too many varity of sizes depending on what cap it needs and some sorts.....some ballasts needs this cap...others need that cap....then other needs that...even in same wattage......

For example. I have this one Cooper 150 watt HPS that only uses 14 uf cap then I have a 100/150 watt HPS from McGraw Unidor that uses only 2 uf cap, and one McGraw Edison HPS 100/150 watt that uses a whopping 48 uf cap!!! Too many varies! So not as easy as you might say!

well i want to punch!...(nahh JK)

Jace you pretty much hit the nail right on the head! There are so many different style caps for even the same wattage's it would not be cost effective to carry all those caps. Now there are some cases where we carry caps for some fixtures such as 1K MH floods. In our case we have so many different style fixtures and brands with caps. The biggest thing you all need to keep in mind is utilities don't look at it as lets save all these fixtures, they look at it from cost effectiveness! If it is easier to change the fixture rather than repair it then that's what will be done. Now as for changing the fixture if it requires just a lamp that does not make sense. Now with that said I have changed out whole fixtures depending on the condition of them. For the most part I carry all the parts I need to repair most fixtures I work on but there instances where it is easier to change out the fixture.

Some capacitors may not be compatible with older fixtures and may do more harm than good which is why most utility companies replace fixtures that have bad capacitors since there's a risk of blowing out a lamp if it's not an exact match. A lamp is easier to replace.

Update: This light is out already....

They replaced some Unidors with 115s here.

all the 250 watt 115's here all were working fine for years untill they were replaced with LEDS...............................

Sometimes people that report a light that's not cycling report the wrong light. Crew comes to replace it and since its an order so I even if the ballast ,ignitor, photocell is working they just replace it anyway. Thats my theory.

I really don't get it, I once reported a R37 that was out for over a year (I thought it was a goner) but yet it was fixed and working perfectly a week later. Then there's lights like this, nothing wrong with them but yet they get replaced.

I've reported the wrong light here before and they relamp it and replace the PC but they don't replace it. I noticed one time a light was out and it was pole number 122 and i entered 123 on the form so they didn't fix the light on pole 122 (which ended up being replaced) and they relamped the light on 123 instead lol. I noticed it because they replaced the baby blue PC with a new shiney gray/black one. Unfortunatly the old lamp and PC would have probably lasted longer than the new lamp and PC will but oh well. It's really odd how they're replacing random fixtures in your area.

I wonder if they have a policy where a light past a certain age gets replaced even if only a new lamp is needed. I remember a utility in Dave's are had that policy.