On hearing that the Brisbane City Council was phasing out their Mercury vapour street lights I sent a message to the council asking what they were being replaced with. I thought I'd share their response which is below...
Cheers,
Mario
Dear Mr Vecchi
Thank you for your online enquiry of 27 August 2013 regarding what type of bulbs Council are switching the street light over to. Council values and appreciates the time you have taken to forward through your request.
Currently the majority of old lights use mercury vapour bulbs. These will be replaced with 32W Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) or new technology linear fluorescent lamps (2 x 14W fluorescent tubes). All of the new lamps are fitted with shielding that reduces the lighting levels to the rear of the fittings, projecting the majority of light forward and sideways. The work will be undertaken in partnership with Energex who will complete the retrofit of existing mercury vapour bulbs.
The locations for the retrofits have been chosen based on the types of lights currently in place and the best opportunity to economically improve energy efficiency. Some parts of the city have more lights that are able to be retrofitted at a lower cost (because of the type of lamp being retrofitted) so these parts of the city have been chosen over others. If a street is being retrofitted, not every light in the street will necessarily be changed. This is because some streets have different types of lights along the same street, and only certain types are being retrofitted. Also, lighting on major roads is not being retrofitted
