Street light in village

[kyrre]

I am about to renew the village street light.

Today we have 60-70 lights with one 36W fluorescent tube wich cost us about 10-12 000 THB a month to keep on by light sensor.

They cost us about 7-800 THB to buy new one. This gives us 2300 lumens in light.

Is there any better solution that would give more lights and maybe a cut in electricity bill. Any suggestions

I have had a look at the new led light, but not sure if they are ready to use yet, the price is still high.
Does anyone know if any have installed led street light in Pattaya region.

[bankruatsteve]

B700 for a F-light??? And, unless my math is bad, it should only cost about B4500 to run the lights for a month (unless the light sensor draws a lot). Sounds like someone's relative has that market. What makes you think you can change that?

[Crossy]

If the fittings are good you can replace the tubes with 20W LED units, just remove the starter. 500 Baht a pop.

I agree with Steve on the running cost, using the LEDs would save about 30% on that. Payback would be a while (about 3 years in a perfect world)

You could add a timer to the light operated switch to kill the lights between say 11PM and 4AM. Payback would be much faster on this option.

[kyrre]

The math can be tricky here, as the meter also supply some swimming pool pumps and guard house. And the bill is about 15-16000 a month total.

I don't have the exact number of lights, just an estimate. I will check the load when i have the amp meter with me back. There can be some leaks as there is used VAG cable from pole to pole and the cable has start to shortcut sometimes.

I have complete control over the meter and the bills from PEA.

The sensor is a basic Thai sensor steering a relay witch feed the streetlights.

1. The sensor i have plan on changing to a better one with adjustable level, or put in a timer. Haven't seen any good ones with battery backup yet so i don't have to adjust it after every power loss.

2. The fittings will be good as i are to change all lights as they have been up for 10 years and are rusty and week in the support.

7-800 for the light is a complete set with bracket for pole mounting and the pipe out. Is this to expensive. They are 12-1400 at Homepro.

Does the LED lights give the same amount of lights compared to a 36W tube, as we have some spots with ow light.

[IMHO]

Very few LED's yet exceed the lumens per watt of decent fluorescent tubes - only the top shelf chips like Edison, Cree and Epistar can really beat fluorescent, and they're rarely found cheap.

Top end LED chips will be able to make 2300 lumens from 23-26watts (90-100lm/watt), but cheaper LED's are more like 60+/-10 lumens/watt, so will use 38watts +/- to achieve the same brightness as your 36w fluorescent.

So the only way you can get a ROI on using LED is:

1) If they actually last longer than fluorescent. Most LED manufacturers rate their chips at 50,000 hours MTBF, but in my experience it's the LED drivers that either die, or die and take out LED chips first. Considering you have gotten 10 years x 365 days x 10 hours = 36,500 hours out of the existing fluorescent, I would say that's going to be hard to beat with LED.

2) Drop the watts (and lumens)

BTW, Looking at your overall load, 70 x 36w x 10 hours = 25 units/day = 756 units/month, which is about 3500 Baht. Either your pool uses more electricity than you think, or there's another load here somewhere..

Another option is buying street lights with E27 fittings and compact fluorescent bulbs, That way, when LED finally does make financial sense you can just switch out the bulbs. Finding 36" fluorescent replacements in LED is much harder/expensive then the much more popular E27 form factor.

Edited November 8, 2014 by IMHO

[kyrre]

I was start thinking that maybe someone is tapping or there are other problems making the meter spinn.

We have one standalone pool (Biggest) on own meter witch cost 2200,- a month.

Then there are 3 (Smaller) other pools witch then should cost 6600,-

Then i cut away 2000 bath for gates, security box, etc.

That leaves 8000,- to the street light witch is double of what it supposed to use.

Have to take the meter and check the load around the village for each pool and other power consumption and sum it up to see if it adds up.

I also see one option for now is to replace the tubes with better quality once to raise the lumens from maybe 2300 to 3000. And maybe try some CFL lights to test with in part of the village to see it this is the future option.

[RichCor]

I was start thinking that maybe someone is tapping or there are other problems making the meter spinn.

Then there are 3 (Smaller) other pools witch then should cost 6600,-

Then i cut away 2000 bath for gates, security box, etc.

That leaves 8000,- to the street light witch is double of what it supposed to use.

Have to take the meter and check the load around the village for each pool and other power consumption and sum it up to see if it adds up.

You may want to 'audit' each device category (measure each, one at a time for current draw) as one of your pumps may be going bad and converting energy into heat.

Auditing will also tell you what each category is pulling from the shared meter.

[Crossy]

Simple electricity meters are not expensive.

If the wiring arrangement permits it why not meter each pool, the gatehouse and the street lighting individually. Should show up is someone is charging their EV from the gatehouse outlet.

[kyrre]

I can easily check each part as they are separated.

And the cables are to be changed anyway because that are start to failing and old.

They have used VAF type cable before in air stretch.

I just have to wait until the electric company in the village have time to do it, and i have to plan it first. As i want to section the street light into areas so we don't have to keep the whole village dark in case of faults.

[Crossy]

VAF is the one cable you should not be using where it's exposed to weather and UV, it's fine in conduit.

THW is usually used on poles with insulators for power distribution, if you need to use a multicore have a look at NYY as a cable good for outdoor use.

[kyrre]

I was thinking of the THW but have to check after we have cleaned up the cables there already if there are room for 3 THW cables. Otherwise i have to go for NYY

[Crossy]

I would discuss cable types with your electrical contractor particularly where the cables will be run exposed on poles.

[IMHO]

There's THW and then there's THW

THW is more a less just a spec for single conductor cable - the spec itself does not mean a cable is suitable for outdoor use. e.g. the 1.5mm2 cable you have running to the lights in your house, that would only last a few months in the sun, is THW, but so is the 25-50mm2 copper mains you have, that lasts for decades in the sun.

NYY cable has two layers of insulation (3 in the case of multicore) and is normally rated for outdoor and underground (NYY-G) use.

VAF (AKA builders cable) also has two layers of insulation, but is cheap, indoor-only, cable.

I you're re-wiring, either use outdoor specific THW (i.e. mains supply cable), or NYY.

Edited November 10, 2014 by IMHO