Unknown Road Signs Franco Bollard
This bollard came from Claire Pendrous; but unlike the Triplex Traffic HE 65 (also from Claire), it is unused. This and another bollard were kept in a council storeroom for their entire lives - their sole purpose being to provide parts for installed bollards, in order to keep them operational. This example was missing its internal lighting spine when it entered the collection. I have not seen this type of bollard installed anywhere - perhaps it was not popular due to its considerable weight.
As received, the bollard was in good, but very grubby, condition. The plastic sheeting (complete with RSF logo) would, originally, have surrounded the bollard to protect it from dirt and damage, but would have been lowered when the internal lighting spine was removed. As with the Triplex HE65, the bollard has steel bodywork and fibreglass glazing panels.
Gently removing the sheeting reveals that the bollard is installed on a base box.
An unusual feature of this bollard is that there is even an aspect on the back, though there is no yellow glazing panel as a door is fitted in this location. The door is secured with two miniature tri-head bolts; at the time of photographing, I didn't have a key that would have fitted these - however...
...the top simply lifts off, so it doesn't really matter anyway! Visible here, and attached to the base box, is a 'Reyrolle'-type socket, for use in connecting the lighting spine. Located opposite is a small piece of wood, installed at an angle. This would support a small fused cut-out and / or isolator, which would supply the socket by means of a short length of flexible cable.
After remaining unused in the collection for over four years, work finally commenced on getting the bollard into lighting in January 2011. The first task was to give the unit a much-needed clean, and to remove flecks of rust from the panels.
Owing to the lack of a vertical lighting spine in this bollard, I decided to produce my own, using a plank of wood and four 13 Watt PL-S lampholders (with integrated ballasts). The top support for the spine was adapted to allow attachment of the plank. An overall 8 μF capacitor was installed so as to improve the lighting system's power factor. The photograph below shows the top of the plank within the (operational) bollard.
I was pleased that the overall light distribution was uniform, especially for the front aspects. The shadows of internal wires can be seen in the right-hand aspects.
When viewed from above, the construction of the spine is revealed. The top two lamps are mounted horizontally; the lower two (not visible here) are mounted vertically.
With the top reattached, the restoration was complete.
Testing the bollard 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 |
| 241.7 | 0.31 | 70 | 75 | 49.9 | 0.94 | 70.43 | 18.43 | 35.44 |
| *Based on the rated wattage of the lamp (13 Watt) × 4 (excluding ballast losses) = 52 W | ||||||||
By 2018, the four 13 Watt lamps had been removed and fitted elsewhere. With LED now being the dominant light source, I decided to go down this route when sourcing replacement lamps, although, I wished to leave the wiring alone. Fortunately, I found that LED retrofit lamps for 13 Watt lamps were available, which would run off the existing ballasts without requiring any wiring alterations. Four were purchased and fitted subsequently; if anything, the LED lamps provided a more uniform light distribution.
A similar view to that seen earlier, looking down inside the bollard, with the new lamps operating quite happily.
Initially, testing the new lamps with the energy monitoring device yielded a rather poor Power Factor; however, after the capacitor was removed from the circuit, the results improved substantially (this is rather ironic, given that adding a capacitor to an inductive circuit normally increases the Power Factor!); the table below displays the results following the capacitor's removal.
| 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 |
| 235 | 0.09 | 17 | 21 | 50.1 | 0.84 | 17.77 | -0.23 | -1.30% |
| *Based on the rated wattage of the lamp (4.5 W) × 4 (excluding ballast losses) = 18 Watt | ||||||||
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