The PFI works in North Hampshire seem slightly more advanced than in the south of the county. Work has started in the Popley region of Basingstoke.
Malletite columns with black WRTL Libras have been installed in
Gilbert Close. Some are 55W PL-L whilst others are
36W PL-L. Only a few new columns have been connected so far, with no removals.
Bermuda Close also has new columns, these all seem to be 55W PL-L but none are yet working.
The sun will soon be setting for the last time on these
CU aluminium columns. They look like they are licence produced versions of the very similar Eleco column.
Some
"new" columns are also marked to be replaced which seems strange.
Remote switching/central monitoring has been specified for the PFI yet both the
36W and
55W lanterns have conventional SELC cells. I wonder if that means the Royce Thompson system that uses RF cells that fit a NEMA socket will be used, unlike the Surrey PFI lanterns which look to have nodes that fit a minicell size cutout. It looks like remote switching/dimming will be implemented at a later stage.
Malta Close has new columns but no new lanterns. Probably around 30 columns have been installed overall. However the estate is a maze of cul de sacs and footpaths which means most of the work will have to be done by hand. I suspect most of the footpaths will get mid hinged columns as there is no vehicular access to them. Many of the columns in roads where no work has yet started are however marked for removal and new column positions are also marked.
A MI50 is around 65W circuit power. A good quality electronic CFL ballast should actually be about the same circuit power as the lamp rating - as the lamp is run at high frequency it produces more light than when on 50Hz gear - this allows the actual lamp rating to be reduced. So even with 55W PL-L there should be a power saving over 35W SOX. Circuit power should be less than 60W.