CU Phosco P567A

The P567A made its Derbyshire début in late 2012, using either 4, 6 or 8 LEDs (depending on the requirements for individual schemes) mounted to the inside walls of the canopy. At this time, this variant of the P567A was new to the market; it was adapted to run LEDs in place of lamps, but with these light sources beginning to fall out of favour with local authorities, an LED option was produced that maintained the appearance of a traditional street lighting lantern whilst employing a newer technology. Eventually, CU Phosco introduced a dedicated side road LED offering, the P852, and the LED version of the P567A was retired. The original location of this particular P567A is unknown.

The P567A comprises a die-cast aluminium canopy (hence, the 'A' suffix; the original P567 was of GRP construction) painted in light grey, along with a low-profile polycarbonate bowl.

The lantern measures 662 mm (2 ft 2 inches) in length and 260 mm (10.24 inches) in width. The Zodion SS6 photocell seen here dates from July 2013 but is defective - any load connected to it will not operate, even with the cell covered.

The rear section of the lantern is removable, allowing the supply cable to be passed into it more easily, though this lantern was supplied with a pre-wired length of flexible cable anyway.

The NEMA photocell socket is also factory-fitted, and dates from October 2012.

Owing to this lantern having been adapted to run an LED light source, much of its optical area is dead space, with an elongated polished aluminium reflector filling the gap that would, otherwise, be left.

As with a number of contemporary lanterns, the spigot entry is hinged, allowing the lantern to be installed post-top or side-entry. This is an improvement on the original P567, which required the use of an adaptor when mounting it post-top.

When in use, the lantern was operated side-entry, and fitted to a bracket of (either) 34 mm (1.34 inches) or 42 mm (1.65 inches) in diameter.

The bowl clip is positioned flush against the canopy under normal circumstances.

The Phosco logo is moulded into the front of the bowl.

With the bowl opened, the internal layout of components becomes apparent.

A product label is situated on the back of the canopy interior, and informs us that this is the 4 LED version of the lantern.

Two LED chips are installed on one side of the lantern; the other two being a mirror image of this on the other side of the lantern. The unused positions for the 6 and 8 LED options are visible on the Printed Circuit Board.

With the reflector removed, a large (and surprisingly, heavy) cast aluminium heat sink appears.

Removing the heat sink, and turning it over, allows access to the LED driver unit.

The driver is a 'coolLED' unit from Harvard Engineering.

The rest of the canopy interior is bare, save for the three rods that support the heat sink.

The P567A was fitted to a wall bracket on Friday, 7th June 2019.

With the lantern activated, an unusual light distribution is produced, owing to this lantern's basic design having been adapted to run LEDs.

Without a flash activated, the internal reflection becomes more apparent.

When viewed from the front, there appear to be multiple light sources within the lantern.

When looking straight up at the lantern, the effect produced by the reflectors is lessened.

Lantern operation video:

Testing 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 to rated wattage	Percentage Difference
248.5	0.07	15	17	49.9	0.85	14.79	-5.21	-26.07%