Thorn Civic 2

After taking possession of the last Alpha 1 to be removed from Station Road in Mickleover in 2005, it seems strangely fitting that I should also acquire the first Civic 2 (the type of lantern that replaced the Alpha 1s) to be removed (a mere three years later). Presumably defective gear is to blame for this lantern's demise, although visually, the components do not look to be faulty. An SGS 253 Iridium running 140 Watt Cosmo-White was fitted in place of the Civic.

These first couple of photographs, taken directly from the Station Road section, show the lantern when new - 10th November 2005.

Three years later, and the lantern doesn't look quite as new any more! The size difference between this lantern and the Civic 1 is quite apparent.

Despite the canopy being painted aluminium, corrosion has set in on the metal surrounding the NEMA socket.

Unlike on the Civic 1, the bowl on this lantern does not feature the same diffused pattern in the area below the lampholder. A slight amount of diffusing is present on the edges of the bowl, however.

The IP66 sealing inside the lamp compartment has worked - the lantern still looks new in this area!

The gear area is supposed to be sealed to IP65; however, the presence of cobwebs and spider eggs in this area suggests that it is actually lower! This is probably due to the sealing gland, which is notoriously difficult to fasten up, even if circular cable is used. These lanterns were all wired with 2.5 mm² twin and earth cable, so the gland can hardly be tightened up at all.

The lantern was attached to a 42 mm diameter wall bracket on Friday, 4th May 2018. Prior to its installation, the lantern was tested, in order to determine the nature of the fault that had caused it to be removed. Surprisingly, this proved unhelpful - the lantern worked as normal when powered up, and the lamp didn't extinguish.

The lamp fitted was original to when the lantern had been installed in 2005, although it was made in March 2003. By the time that the lantern was replaced, the lamp must have been beginning to wear out, as the output colour was noticeably less golden than it would be in a healthy lamp.

Lamp warm-up video:

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 to rated wattage	Percentage Difference
243.8	0.94	132	229	50	0.59	135.21	-14.79	-10%

These results seemed incorrect for a 150 Watt lantern on standard, wire-wound control gear, and so I repeated the test with a healthier lamp. These results were far more satisfactory:

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
246.6	0.88	181	217	49.9	0.83	180.12	30.12	20%