Fluorescent street lighting

[AdamAnt316]

I remember seeing fluorescent lighting at gas stations when I was growing up, but not so much as street lighting. At least one former gas station (now a body shop) still turns on their fluorescent lights at night. One current gas station lit theirs for a year or so, but didn't bother to turn it off during the day! It's been off ever since; not sure if the tubes/ballast failed, or if they just don't bother anymore.

Up until the early-mid '90s, my town used mercury vapor street lighting. We lived on a small private road, and still had an incandescent streetlight. Around the time the town converted their streetlights to sodium vapor, they took down our streetlight, and didn't replace it for a few years, upon which they replaced it with a sodium vapor one which is still there.

A few years ago, I found an American Electric street light head in a trash pile across the street from my house. It's equipped with a 100W GE mercury vapor bulb, and a ballast coil of some sort. I'm not sure how to wire it up; I tried connecting a 120V cheater cord to its terminals, but no dice. Guessing it needs 240 or 277V, but I have no real idea how I'd accommodate it in that regard. Here are some pictures of it:

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by AdamAnt316

I remember seeing fluorescent lighting at gas stations when I was growing up, but not so much as street lighting. At least one former gas station (now a body shop) still turns on their fluorescent lights at night. One current gas station lit theirs for a year or so, but didn't bother to turn it off during the day! It's been off ever since; not sure if the tubes/ballast failed, or if they just don't bother anymore.

There's a hotel/Tiki bar in East Vancouver called the Waldorf that refurbished the exterior about a decade ago so it was no longer a super seedy bar and hooker hang-out. Along with restoring the exterior to it's original style they replaced all the original fluorescent lighting along the roofline and it ran happily for years. About two years ago however the building changed owners and it rapidly fell into disrepair. They removed it all for good in the spring as they are slowly pushing the plot through city hall for redevelopment. Not sure though why you would want to pay Vancouver rates though for a condo that overlooks the docks and both a chicken rendering and processing plant.



Edited: I forgot I also did some digging and found photos of my town in the late 60's when the main drags were still fluorescent.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...Bucket/_58.jpg


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...1939_small.jpg


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...et/293_001.jpg


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...et/954_001.jpg

The same street, but a few years later. Note the sodium heads.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...et/804_001.jpg