www.soxlamps.com: SOX lights in the UK and overseas

SOX lamps in the UK and overseas

SOX is still used quite widely in many areas of the UK, although it is unfortunately in decline.

In November 2018 I made a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request to 100 councils around Britain in order to find out the extent of SOX in use. I supplemented this with a further request to 10 councils the following month. The map on the left shows a summary, with blue areas having the highest proportion of SOX lamps and red areas having no SOX at all. Some other findings:

• 7% of the councils surveyed reported that 40% or more of their street lights are SOX. In England, the highest proportions of SOX are in Bradford, Essex, Shropshire and Wirral; in Wales, it is Pembrokeshire.

• The total number of SOX lights reported by the 110 councils, covering 92.9% of the total land area of Britain, is 544,329. Scaling this up gives an estimate of 585,700 SOX lights under the control of councils across Britain. If privately-owned SOX lights and other lights are included, there are probably at least 600,000 in use.

• Only 25% of councils surveyed are maintaining their SOX streetlights as SOX rather than replacing with LED etc, and the proportion is lower in cities than in county areas. Note that the question of 'are you maintaining your SOX streetlights' met with a wide range of answers, and so the sentence above is a basic summary; further details are in the full report.

• Only 1 council is planning any new installations of SOX. 98% are definitely not.

• Many councils believe that a transfer to LED street lights constitutes an upgrade or makes energy savings. However, as mentioned on my Advantages page, SOX lights are highly energy-efficient and have many benefits.

My full report, "SOX street lighting usage in Britain November 2018" (version 1.2 as of 21 Jan 2019), is available:

Click here to get the full report as a PDF (8 pages, 531 KB)

Also on the same topic is the forum discussion "SOX street lights, which areas still have them?" on the website of SABRE, The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts: https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=38443

Overseas

There are also many SOX lanterns overseas. Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, have used SOX: Philips lighting has had factories in both countries, and there has been an interest in low-pressure sodium there because of the technological development in which they were involved in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In fact, in Belgium in 2022 SOX lamps are in continuing use on some major highways. In parts of the Netherlands, many mercury lanterns were converted to use SOX instead. However, overall numbers of SOX are now in decline there. SOX is far less common in Germany, and is apparently banned from use in residential areas in Denmark because of their lack of colour rendering. (ref: Sjef Jansen; Philips Lighting; Joanna Mo, Qianshun Lighting)

In Ireland, 180W SOX lamps are used for dual carriageways, particularly around Dublin. (ref: Séamus Mac Seáin)

Italy has made some use of SOX: 90W and 180W Disano 'Radon' lights were used around Milan. Apparently SOX lamps are still being installed in some towns around Milan for example. (ref: Fabio Locatelli)

Japan and Korea have also used some Philips SOX lighting for tunnels and roads due to their qualities. There has also been an interest in SOX shown in China, with large numbers being ordered. (ref: Allan Court, Philips Lighting; James Hooker)

SOX has not been widely used in the past in the USA — in many parts SOX lanterns were very rare (Americans refer to SOX lanterns as LPS — low-pressure sodium). In the USA it's not uncommon for long stretches of highway outside of cities etc. to not be lit at all, so there was not such a need for highly energy-efficient lighting for those sorts of areas. Apparently there were some test installations in the late 1970s, but the public reaction was very negative, and so most of these have since been removed.

However LPS has been widespread in Arizona, partly because of the observatories there, used by astronomers who prefer LPS as it is easier to filter out the light when they are surveying the skies. The Rite-Aide chain of stores, which exists all over the USA, has used some 35W lamps for security. As further examples: LPS has been used in California (e.g. Los Angeles, San Diego); there have been some Philips MA-60 installations in Illinois; and LPS has had some use in New York. LPS has also been used for tunnel, bridge and platform lighting in Chicago. (ref: Colin Grimes, Sjef Jansen, Mrs H Meyer, Jon Paul)

SOX has been used in eastern Canada, in Toronto, Alberta (e.g. Edmonton) and Quebec. However, it appears they no longer exist in Toronto: they were in use from the early 1970s but the final lanterns were removed in 2006. (James Alcock)

SOX lighting has been more common in Australia, having been used quite extensively. Here it is also referred to as LPS. The states that have used LPS are New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, including the cities of Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Hobart. However, in Australia also, there is little LPS left, except perhaps in South Australia. It is interesting to learn however that most Australian LPS streetlights are the same as in the UK because Philips, Thorn, GEC, Eleco, REVO etc. had suppliers there, as Australia used to be part of the British Empire. There are many photos of Australian streetlights in my "Why Is He Interested In Streetlighting?" book, courtesy of Michael Greenslade. (ref: Michael Greenslade, David Pietsch)

It was also used in New Zealand, for example Philips 135W and 180W lanterns were on SH1 (State Highway 1) and the Auckland Harbour Bridge. (ref: Fabio Locatelli)