Light bulb life?

[jerjwillelec]

I do work for the city I live in and we have a fairly nice, multi acre, recreational park with a walking trail. This trail has several trail lights (15 ft poles with 175 watt MH luminaries). They are constantly replacing light bulbs...like twice per year. Some are 120 volt, some are 277 volt. They are looking into an LED option but I want to make sure the problem isn't something else first. Any thoughts?

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Have you checked the voltage out at the lights- and are they using the proper bulbs when replacing them. The LEDs can take a wider range of voltages so my guess is they will do better. Many of the led fixtures have a 10 year warranty.

 

[mgookin]

I suggest you put a data logger on the circuit and monitor how long they burn and more importantly, how many times per day they switch with the controls you have. Being on a walking trail if they are on photocontrols they may be switching multiple times per day; we see it all the time. We find lights burning >22 hours per day coming on and going off 5-25 times per day. That is sure to kill bulbs quick.

 

[cowboyjwc]

Our city is getting ready to replace all of the city building's parking lot lights with LED. I would bet that you have a voltage drop issue, also you could be getting water in somewhere that could be causing you problems. The water one's a little iffy, but I've seen where as long as the ground is dry they didn't have any issues.

 

[gadfly56]

I suggest you put a data logger on the circuit and monitor how long they burn and more importantly, how many times per day they switch with the controls you have. Being on a walking trail if they are on photocontrols they may be switching multiple times per day; we see it all the time. We find lights burning >22 hours per day coming on and going off 5-25 times per day. That is sure to kill bulbs quick.

Dude, prototype your controller and see if they'll test it for you! Match that with some induction fixtures and "Bob's your uncle"!

 

[Iron_Ben]

I do work for the city I live in and we have a fairly nice, multi acre, recreational park with a walking trail. This trail has several trail lights (15 ft poles with 175 watt MH luminaries). They are constantly replacing light bulbs...like twice per year. Some are 120 volt, some are 277 volt. They are looking into an LED option but I want to make sure the problem isn't something else first. Any thoughts?

I worked for the poco for many years and we owned and operated a zillion lights, from 100 to 1500 watts, maybe 95% HPS and 5% MH. The metal halides were troublesome and it seemed we were always replacing them. And they were worst on the 277 volt tap. We had one section of boulevard lighting that was over 2 miles long, double 250's at 277 volts. A nice white light when they worked but in the last ten years there were very few nights, maybe no nights at all, when every light worked. High pressure sodium much more reliable in my experience.