It's something councils will definitely need to plan for rather than to walk into blindly. A bit like with mercury and SOX, there is sufficient time to plan, but there will no doubt be some who get caught out.

The principal reason behind the phase out is the mercury content of lamps, as opposed to energy efficiency.

Hampshire's PL-L lamps should last the longest between changes, as not only are many of them part-night but they also run heavily dimmed at all times when switched on (if mapped correctly). In comparison, Southampton's part-night lighting period is longer, but the PL-L lamps are run at higher power when on.

Speaking of which, the other day I saw that the parallel residential service road part of Millbrook Road West has recently been lantern swapped with new Axia 3s. A couple of the casual Hampshire green SON Iridiums have also been changed out. I am not aware of any plans for LED rollout in Southampton (nor Hampshire), other than the councils looking into it.

On an unrelated note, I saw some mercury lamps for sale in a shop the other day. Some might be surprised, but to clarify, they were special application lamps for use with reptiles and tortoises etc with enhanced UV outputs in both externally and self ballasted guises. Of course, they also had traditional infrared heat lamps too. Pricey lamps, but it goes to show that bans aren't killing absolutely everything traditional just yet.

I have heard of street lighting contractors stockpiling lamps to help avoid a cliff-edge scenario of running out of lamps before a transition to LED has been made. South Coast PFI is relatively unusual in that it has a high inventory of compact fluorescent for street lighting, but even other authorities can still have quite a bit of compact fluorescent for things including sign lighting and subways.

Latest figures from Hampshire County Council website suggest the following:

Fluorescent - 101359 units
CosmoPolis - 18202 units
High Pressure Sodium - 21501 units
LED - 14461 units
Other - 199 units

So, in Hampshire alone there are over 100k fluorescent units. Whilst I'm certain stockpiling is happening, just relamping Hampshire the once would require enormous stockpiling, and don't forget Enerveo also cater for Southampton and West Sussex, and even neighbouring Dorset where PL-T lamps are used in a number of Iridiums. Would they have the capacity to stockpile for relamping all of this stock just once? I can't say, but it's a tall order.

It's not going to be an immediate problem, but the service provider and councils certainly need to start working together on a plan if they haven't already. My feeling is that it could be a problem in less than 10 years if left unchecked, but the next 5 years should be no problem. After all, if the fluorescent inventory gets reduced bit-by-bit every year, then the stockpiles of lamps will last longer because they will be servicing a reduced number of fittings.

It all goes back to what many of us have said many times before; it is best practice if councils renew street lighting little and often.

During the early hours of New Year's Eve, I noticed that the street lighting outside my house was on during hours that it is normally switched off. Part of me wondered if they had programmed an override of the part-night lighting in preparation for New Year celebrations, but had screwed up and programmed it 24 hours early. Sure enough, during the early hours of New Year's Day the lighting switched off as per its normal part-night routine.

Well done Enerveo  

I've noticed some strange changes to the lighting regime on my estate as of last night. Broadly speaking, to get from the main road into the far end of the estate you have to use four roads. To summarise the previous situation:

Road 1: not yet adopted, lighting not on fault reportingmap, not subject to dimming or part-night lighting
Road 2: was subject to dimming and part-night lighting in its entirety
Road 3: was shown as part-night on the fault reporting map, but in reality was not dimming or part-night contrary to the map
Road 4: was subject to dimming and part-night lighting in its entirety

This has now changed a bit:

Road 1: no change, operating as before
Road 2: 3no. columns between Road 1 and Road 2 now all-night, in addition to columns on one spur
Road 3: operating as before, so not dimming or part-night, but now shown on the fault reporting map as all night between Roads 2 and 3
Road 4: converted to all-night in its entirety

So, essentially now you can drive from the main road to the tip of the estate under all-night lighting now. Doesn't explain why it needs to be all-night in the first place, because it's no different to any other housing estate and there are more important routes nearby that are part-night. None of it needs to be all-night. Mid you, there are oddities nearby, where in the older part of town there is a grid system of roads and back alleys, and most are part-night except for one random back alley, so you have the odd situation of one street where if you're out after 1am you'll stay in light if you risk walking the back alley rather than the road outside the front of your house! They've also done nothing to address the lighting that isn't currently dimming. Aside from Road 1 not being adopted, there are also random columns on the estate which are missing from the fault reporting map, despite them having "stickers" and having been witnessed to be maintained. So, it's all a bit strange. And just to clarify, my previous observations at New Year stand and I wasn't mistaken, so the last week has been a bit odd.

Hampshire County Council are consulting on further savings to street lighting. To summarise proposals:

Part Night Lighting
To extend the hours of part night lighting from the current 1am-4am (3 hours) to 12am-5am (5 hours). No changes to which lighting is subject to the part night lighting regime.

Residential Road Dimming
To retain dimming from dusk to 11.30pm at the current levels of dim by 65%, but to increase dimming from 11.30pm to 5.30am to dim by 80%. (Erm, what about 5.30am to dawn?)

Main Road Dimming
To increase dimming from dusk to 11.30pm from current levels of dim by 30% to dim by 45%. To retain current levels of dimming from 11.30pm-5.30am at dim by 50%. To increase dimming from 5.30am to dawn from current levels of dim by 25% to dim by 40%. (Erm, why does morning need to be slightly brighter than evening? Surely in the morning everybody's eyes are adjusted to the dark?).

Whilst not part of the consultation, I believe existing deferred plans to replace around half of the high pressure sodium lighting on main roads with LED have been resurrected, and so over the next year or so we might see a number of replacements in this respect. I've heard suggestion that 1300 replacement lanterns have recently been ordered and that another around 10,000 may be going on order quite soon.

Personally, I think extending the hours of part night lighting would be fine in many areas, and certainly switching back on at 4am rather than 5am seems really pointless. However, I am dubious about increasing the dimming, especially on residential streets where there is compact fluorescent. Particularly in winter, the compact fluorescent lighting can really struggle to the point that the lowest wattage 24W PL-L is unstable and flickers. I think Hampshire County Council are going too far, yet some of the inconstancies of the lighting are not being addressed, such as some streets having twice as many columns as others for no apparent reason, or some having higher power lighting than others for no apparent reason, or some being all night rather than part night for no apparent reason, or even some lighting existing where it doesn't really serve a meaningful purpose.

...

In other news, during a short drive round just a few areas of Southampton this evening, I spotted a good dozen more residential streets relit with Axia 3s, so there is definitely some kind of LED rollout happening. Some localised areas tended to have a fair amount and others not at all. I'm wondering if maybe they are doing LED replacements in place of relamping, but I cannot be sure. UPDATE: I spotted a report which, whilst vague, suggested that there is currently an LED replacement scheme in progress that will see 50% of the city's street lighting upgraded to LED.