Streetlights

PauG (Maryland)
Posts: 53

Posted:

The streetlights in our HOA are 27 years old. We've had to replace the glass and a few power cells. Most of the black paint on the tops have long peeled away and are now white.

Does anyone know the lifespan of a streetlight?

We'd like to replace them with better lighting, and a better design.

Any advice on buying them?

Are there any agencies that help communities acquire better lights?

JanM (Texas)
Posts: 142

Posted:

Call your local electric co. They are the ones in "charge" of streetlights. Pun intended

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

I believe that your local utility company is responsible for street lights. Even in our gated community, they do the replaceing and bulb changing.

Jadedone4 (Virginia)
Posts: 495

Posted:

Paul, I strongly advise you to take the advice of the previous posters. We are in the process of (finally) having the developer take care of the lights which surround out community (soon to be public roads, and part of the original design plans). During a walk-thru with the developer, county, and the utility company, it was noted that if the HOA wanted lights in the interior of the community that we should use a similiar program (lights along the perimeter were the 40-45ft stadium lights, which are fully maintained by the county). The logic was that (our local jurisdiction), once the HOA installed lights (running cables, powers, etc) we effectively became a "utility company" in the eyes of the county. To avoid that, and the future hassles, we will probably just have the utility company come in and install the standard 10-15ft decorative street lamps for us, and just pay a fee each month. While paying the fee may not be what your community wants/decides, for use it is about not having the headaches of filing each year as a "utility" and all that comes with that.

In our case the utility company will come out and assess the need (lumination, quantity, etc) that your community should have and work out a bill from there. We are waiting until next year to do ours, so that we have the benefit of the perimeter lighting to help us determine what we need, or do not need.

In your post you didn't mention if the effort was to just start with new lights, or to restore those already in service. One of the issues you may run into with restoration of a twenty-plus year old product is if your local codes have changed, either in safety or useage of lamps. Take a look at your HOA's reserve study to see what those estimates were for the lamps. Also if funds are available hire an engineer to take a look at what can be done with the existing lamps; retro-fitting, restoration, etc. Remember that a streetlight/lamp carries a commercial grading, and power source, so be very selective of the folks you hire to do anything - making sure that they have the know-how to work on such a type of fixture.

PauG (Maryland)
Posts: 53

Posted:

Thanks for all the great advice.

In our City, the City owns the streetlights except in most of the HOA communities like ours. We own the lights and so we are responsible for replacing or repairing them, but the City pays the electric bill on them. I am going to go to talk to our City government to see if they can help. I don't think Allegheny Power will do anything. But I will check into it.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

PauG,
Are you sure that you have that right--they, the city, pays for
the electric bill? Usually they provide the lights and the developement pays the bill. Even in gated areas they do that.