How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

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RJDG14
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How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by RJDG14 »

Are there any current estimates of when all streetlights in most areas will be LED? I'd imagine it would be around 2030 but I could be completely wrong.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by brummie_rob »

I doubt even by then they will all be LED. Perhaps something new will have happened by then. Roll out in some areas is non-existent or very slow. In some places LED, SON and SOX are all in use with even CFL (Staffordshire being one county).
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by martinyoung91 »

In Northern Ireland it will be around 2050 based on the current rate of progress (~8% of the lighting stock replaced in the last 3 years). I'd be surprised if the lighting type has been uniform at any stage, even sodium lighting failed to achieve 100% coverage.
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RJDG14
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by RJDG14 »

martinyoung91 wrote:In Northern Ireland it will be around 2050 based on the current rate of progress (~8% of the lighting stock replaced in the last 3 years). I'd be surprised if the lighting type has been uniform at any stage, even sodium lighting failed to achieve 100% coverage.
There was a mass replacement scheme in Northern Ireland around 1997-2003, so most of their lighting is still pretty modern. But yeah, last time I visited (April) I didn't notice any LEDs at all.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by kit »

Even where there have been replacement programmes there still seem to be one or two missed and apparently subsequently maintained around here. I don't know if it's caused by the person doing the ordering miscounting them, or just that it is easier to miss one if they are replaced in the daytime.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by Beardy5632 »

Apart from our housing estate 4 years ago and a few new built estates having some, there doesn't seem to be any more that have appeared in the Forest of Dean. This was recently replaced with another SON light, plus these SOX ones on the B4226 in Cinderford are still there.

They have been replacing them around Gloucester lately though and (I think) some of Cheltenham and Bishops Cleve too.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by RJDG14 »

I'd say that 90% of the lights in my town are still SON/SOX. The council have recently started replacing broken SON with CFL/LED and most new installations are LED but otherwise there's been no mass rollout. On most of the main roads the lights are SON while there's still a lot of SOX in some residential areas, and even a handful of mercury on one or two streets. In the more westernly part, built in the 1980s, the lights on the main roads are also still mostly SOX.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by sotonsteve »

There are street lighting PFIs that commenced in around 2010 that were installing non-LED light sources. These contracts last for 25 years, and without additional financing from the highway authority on top of the PFI payments the PFI management companies will just maintain what has been installed. The contract end date for PFIs starting in 2010 will be 2035. In the end, it will boil down to the savings achievable by going LED. In Portsmouth, it would make sense for some LED replacements before the end of the contract, as LED would use a third to half the power of the SON it replaces. However, in Hampshire LED would barely save any power in comparison with the dimmed compact fluorescent currently used. So, I do think it will be well into the 2030s or beyond.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by Fenlander »

What if the non-LED lamps aren't being made any more by then on either cost or other grounds? Surely they'll be a point at which the LED equivalent will be the default replacement rather than like for like within that time span.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by GOSBER03 »

Fenlander wrote:What if the non-LED lamps aren't being made any more by then on either cost or other grounds? Surely they'll be a point at which the LED equivalent will be the default replacement rather than like for like within that time span.
I agree it's funny how in South Lincolnshire how they have replaced loads but left a few odd ones out here and there!
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by sotonsteve »

Well, we can only base our predictions on what we already know or suspect will happen.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by A1OZZ »

GOSBER03 wrote:
Fenlander wrote:What if the non-LED lamps aren't being made any more by then on either cost or other grounds? Surely they'll be a point at which the LED equivalent will be the default replacement rather than like for like within that time span.
I agree it's funny how in South Lincolnshire how they have replaced loads but left a few odd ones out here and there!
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by brummie_rob »

Solihull Council seem to be replacing SON at quite the rate now. Lots of the main routes between Solihull and Birmingham are now LED and they have even started to branch out on the none classified routes from the town centre. Along with the mass change from the old MFI lamps on residential streets, a good percentage is LED.

Stoke Council meanwhile voted to change to LED in there recent council meeting and that is despite the PFI changing from mostly SOX to SON between 2007-2010.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by sotonsteve »

It's great for the PFI contractors; get paid to replace and maintain all the street lighting in an area, then get paid additional money to replace the newish lighting again!
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by Brenley Corner »

Kent County Council are due to replace all their lighting stock (118,000 columns) with LED by May 2019 although the schedule is about 3 to 6 months adrift. All residential streets by May 2017 followed by main roads and town centres. The council also voted to return to all night lighting once the new centrally managed lighting is installed and commissioned in each area.
None of this applies to those lights owned by the district and parish councils within the county.

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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by kevinse16 »

Stratford on Avon District Council appear to be installing LED lights in phases, these are so much better than the SON or SOX lamps they are replacing.
I noticed on recent foggy evenings how much better lit the roads with LED lights were compared to the older types of lamps.

They have replaced the SON lamps with LED ones at the Bishopton Lane/Timothy's Bridge Road roundabout something that happened back in the 1980's when SOX lamps were replaced by SON lamps at roundabouts and traffic light junctions first.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by Jamesabout29 »

Here in Essex, roll out of LED has occurred, albeit slowly. Only lights that are not subject to part night lighting (stay on all night) have been replaced by LED. All casual replacements are now LED, but SOX and SON are still dominant by a country mile. If it takes casual replacments only to make my area LED, it will take decades!
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by A42_Sparks »

RJDG14 wrote:
martinyoung91 wrote:In Northern Ireland it will be around 2050 based on the current rate of progress (~8% of the lighting stock replaced in the last 3 years). I'd be surprised if the lighting type has been uniform at any stage, even sodium lighting failed to achieve 100% coverage.
There was a mass replacement scheme in Northern Ireland around 1997-2003, so most of their lighting is still pretty modern. But yeah, last time I visited (April) I didn't notice any LEDs at all.
I'm surprised at that as sodium lights are being replaced by LED's at a frantic rate throughout my town (Ballymena). Actually my own estate is being upgraded* this week, the vans arrived on Monday.

* = not an upgrade IMO, I think the LED street lights used in NI are terrible and have a 'cold' look when lit
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by martinyoung91 »

A42_Sparks wrote:
RJDG14 wrote:
martinyoung91 wrote:In Northern Ireland it will be around 2050 based on the current rate of progress (~8% of the lighting stock replaced in the last 3 years). I'd be surprised if the lighting type has been uniform at any stage, even sodium lighting failed to achieve 100% coverage.
There was a mass replacement scheme in Northern Ireland around 1997-2003, so most of their lighting is still pretty modern. But yeah, last time I visited (April) I didn't notice any LEDs at all.
I'm surprised at that as sodium lights are being replaced by LED's at a frantic rate throughout my town (Ballymena). Actually my own estate is being upgraded* this week, the vans arrived on Monday.

* = not an upgrade IMO, I think the LED street lights used in NI are terrible and have a 'cold' look when lit
The TNI Northern division lighting engineers seem more enthusiastic about LED replacements than some - the A26 is done pretty much all the way from Seven Towers roundabout continuing to the A37 beyond Coleraine. But overall the rate of switching over is low. Personally I prefer them, even at the slightly cold 4000K temperature TNI use. A few streets round Belfast City Hall have been switched over recently, and the effect is transformative. I'd be happy to see the SOX in our development go, but don't see that happening anyway soon. The only reason we're even at 8% is the bulk replacement done in Banbridge, Portadown and Lurgan in 2015/6. If that scheme is excluded the rate of switch over is more like 1% /year, so it could be the 2100s before sodium lights disappear! And given the current political / budget situation here I don't see any more funding headed to toward this area.
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Re: How long before all streetlights in most areas are LED?

Post by RJDG14 »

I visit mainly the Co. Londonderry and Tyrone areas of Northern Ireland, where most lights are either older SON/SOX from the 1970s/1980s or the top-mounted SON from the 1990s/2000s. By the way, how long ago did they start replacing SON with LED in Ballymena? My guess would be a year or so ago.

In my area, most lights are still SOX from when the houses were first built in the 1980s, but the council have started using LED for casual replacements. What's odd is the fact that they'll often replace a single SOX column with a new LED column in its place, but the SOX column/light is working just fine and they don't bother replacing the other columns. It's almost like the council say "we have the money for 5 new columns" so they have a lottery of 200 numbers/columns and pick out the numbers for five columns in the area.
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