6. West Drive, Mickleover. This road has recently been relit with Philips 60w CPO-TW 'Cosmo' Iridiums on 6m columns in place of 35w SOX lanterns on sleeved Stanton 7 concretes which were there previously. At the time of writing (summer 2006), this setup has become the standard for a whole Group B column replacement and as far as I am aware, Derby is pretty much leading the way with this new lighting technology as very few lighting authorities have adopted it yet. (It is strange to think that in 2003, when page 2 was written, Iridiums were being fitted with CDM-TT lamps and that was seen as a breakthrough in lighting technology at the time - technology is moving at a rate of knots these days!) Cosmo Iridiums are appearing on side streets across the City at the moment - it's just that the West Drive ones are the nearest ones to me.
This example was dayburning (along with several others) a few days prior to this - no one seems to be exactly sure why this was but it could be to do with the SS3DR cells fitted - these apparently can be made to stay on if the power is momentarily interrupted (similar to a PIR sensor), and on the Saturday when I took this photograph, there had been several supply fluctuations throughout the day so that is a definite possibility. This 'override' method (if that was what it was) only seems to last until dawn the next day as I returned on the Sunday and the lights had gone off.
I was impressed by the light quality at night - it is slightly bluer than a CDM/CDO lamp but this is hardly noticeable.
I was lucky to acquire a Cosmo Iridium for my collection - click here to read information about it.
© 2002-2008 Mike Barford