Let's get rid of mercury vapour street lights

In suburban streets around Australia you can witness one of the most flagrant wastes of energy going around. These streets are typically lit by 80W mercury vapour lamps in outdated light fittings. What’s the problem with this? There are many.  The lamps suffer from lumen depreciation – a deterioration in light output over time. After about 4 years a mercury vapour lamp will typically emit about 50% of it’s initial light output.  But the problem, paradoxically, is that the lamps don’t fail. Instead, they continue to lose light output for a very long time while drawing increasing amounts of power. It is not unusual for a mercury vapour lamp to be still running at 20% of it’s initial light output while drawing 120% of the rated power (96W for an 80W rated lamp). To put this into context, you’d be better off having an incandescent lamp instead of MV (and it would look a whole lot better too).  In my local council of Darebin you might as well switch the lights off for the light they provide.

I’m not suggesting we buy up the last of the incandescent lamps and light our streets with them. But I am suggesting that Councils invest in a bulk replacement of this outdated technology and move forward with a more sustainable alternative. A fluorescent alternative would yield typically a 69% saving in energy, far superior colour rendition and lumen maintenance.

Householders are doing their bit, installing water tanks and solar panels on their roofs.  It’s about time councils did theirs.

Ever wondered why the light can't get out?