Low Carbon Lighting LuxOn Street

This lantern was removed from column 8252 on the westbound 'on' slip road leading to the A516 dual carriageway to the west of Mickleover on Monday, 23rd January 2017; its column being removed as well, owing to the road undergoing realignment, in order to accommodate a new roundabout that would provide access to a new housing development on the opposite side of the A516. At the time of its removal, column 8252 was the newest column on this slip road; it being installed on Tuesday, 8th March 2016 as a replacement for an identical setup that was struck by a vehicle on the night of the 15th/16th January that year. Prior to this collision, a column dating from the early 2000s and supporting a Philips SGS 203 150 Watt SON lantern was installed at the location; this itself was a replacement for the column installed in the mid-1990s that was fitted with a Thorn Europhane Pilote T2 lantern of the same wattage - this column position was obviously rather vulnerable!

The LuxOn Street LED lantern gained widespread use throughout the areas controlled by Derbyshire County Council from 2014 onwards - whilst it could be seen at a variety of mounting heights (depending on the quantity of LEDs fitted), the most common variant is this (the 68 LED, 120 Watt) type, which replaced the 150 Watt SON-T WRTL/Indal/Philips Arc lantern as the Council's day-to-day Maintenance lantern for 10 m columns.

Thank you to the street lighting contractor involved with the road alteration scheme for saving this lantern for me - I am very grateful!

The video below was captured during the most recent installation of column 8252, in March 2016.

Moving to the 20th January 2017, and the lantern can be seen to the right of this picture. By this date, the supply to the slip road columns had been removed (as had the columns on the 'off' slip road), and the slip roads themselves, as well as this portion of the westbound carriageway, were closed to traffic. A contra-flow system was in operation on the eastbound carriageway, with traffic speeds reduced to 40 mph through the road works.

The all-electronic nature of this lantern allows it to be very shallow for much of its length - only the column/bracket entry point adds any real depth. A pre-wired length of flexible cable is included with the lantern.

The lantern is relatively scoop-shaped, with the front portion being slightly wider than the rear. Despite the lantern being connected to a group-controlled supply when in use, a SELC / Westire AcRo photocell is fitted to the lantern's (surprisingly off-centred) NEMA socket...long term visitors to this site will know that running lanterns with their own photocell on a group-controlled circuit is a major pet hate of mine! Incidentally, the photocell is dated to November 2015, whilst the NEMA socket is to January of the same year.

The 68 LEDs (each with individual lenses) are located behind a flat glass panel - compare this to my earlier LED acquisitions - the Mini Iridium and the Stela; both of which have the lenses protruding through the lantern body. The glass panel is held in place by twelve 'Torx' screws - in theory, there should never be a need to access this area. The column spigot entry can be rotated, in order to allow the lantern to be mounted side-entry instead, though an adaptor is recommended for narrower spigot diameters.

The LED lenses are arranged in such a way that ensures that the majority of the lantern's output is cast forwards and to the sides. Visible behind the LED matrix are a series of heat-sinking fins.

This view demonstrates the join between the two sections.

The canopy features two sturdy-looking hinges to its rear.

As well as securing the canopy, the sprung toggle also provides a means of adjusting the lantern tilt - it is shown in the 10 degree position here, though 0 - 5 degrees would be more commonly-used.

With the toggle released, access to the internal wiring is gained. A surprising omission is the lack of a gasket in this area, in order to prevent dirt and moisture from entering it.

A close-up of the wiring reveals more interesting observations - firstly, the label indicates that the lantern is UK-made (most unusual!); secondly, the Philips-made driver unit is capable of dimming, except that, because a dimming unit is not fitted, the wires that would supply it have been cut...thirdly, are those exposed wires that I see between the lantern's main connector block and the red suppression capacitor..? Hmm!

Such was the immense brightness from the 4000 K LEDs upon powering the lantern up that the camera's automatic exposure went into overdrive...if only the same could have happened with my retinas!

The beam pattern softened when the lantern was viewed from the front.

The glare was reduced still further when the LEDs were viewed from the back.

It then became unbearably bright again when viewed from the optimum angle for the lenses - such was the intensity that I couldn't tell whether the below picture was in focus or not - I hoped that it was and powered down the lantern; the image of the 68 LEDs remaining in my vision for a few minutes afterwards...it's a good job that we are given multiple pairs of eyes during our lifetimes...oh, wait!

Lantern operation video:

The lantern was attached to an AC Ford AC 872 Mk II wall bracket on Friday, 13th October 2017. This required the rotation of the internal spigot clamp; fortunately, the grub screws supplied were of sufficient length to grip the 42 mm diameter bracket pipe.

Testing the lantern with my energy monitoring device revealed the following results:

Test Voltage (V)	Current being drawn at full power (A)	Measured wattage (W)	Apparent Power (VA)	Frequency (Hz)	Power Factor	True Power (W)	Difference (W)	Percentage Difference
244	0.51	120	124	49.9	0.96	119.46	-0.54	-0.45%