Infrared Emitter on Street Lamp

guykuo

Getting comfortable
Jul 7, 2018
745
2,215
Sammamish, WA
Power company came by and got broken street light working again today. A new thing I see now, but never noticed in the past, is a top module that flashes an IR emitter. Motion sensor?


View attachment lamp fix.mp4


Here is top of street lamp pole in color and IR.
View attachment lamp ir emitter.mp4
 
Hmmmm....very interesting.

It appears to be at the top and incorporated into the dusk-to-dawn PEC (photoelectric cell), for what purpose, I have no idea, but I doubt that it's a motion sensor. None of the NEMA twist-lock PEC's we used atop the luminaires had them. That looks like a flat-top style that I'm not familiar with. After dealing with municipal traffic signals and street lighting for 31+ years from '73 to' 04 I retired in '04, over 20 years ago so very well could be something new...at least to me. :cool:

It may be so they can see from the ground with a hand-held viewer ( smartphone) before going up if the street light has power without causing customer curiosity and complaints from a visible spectrum LED..."why is that LED flashing?" so they made it IR.

Dude didn't even attempt to trim the encroaching vegetation that was all over that PEC. He'll be back when the wind whips the tree and the limb damages the PEC. :wtf:
 
Ah... makes sense. I never even considered need for a quick way to check power is present.
Yes, looking back to that time when I was in that maintenance field I can see where that would be a handy feature! :headbang: