Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Background
Lumec developed SealsafeTM sealed optical chamber with high impervious and air resistance seal to
prevent the optical system from infiltration of dust particles and other pollutants over time. The
manufacturer claims that the Sealsafe sealed optical chamber can reduce the amount of air
exchanged by “respiration”, completely eliminate air circulation through “diffusion” 1, and
therefore the Sealsafe chamber could allow the use of lower wattage lamps and reduce
maintenance. For instance, a previous study (Van Dusen, 1971) measured “respiration” and
“diffusion” of various luminaires and determined that the internal dirt depreciation constant, K (see
below), for Cobra-head luminaire was 0.5%. However, Lumec tried to apply a leakage resistance of
Lumec’s new Cobra-head luminaire equipped with the Sealsafe chamber to Van Dusen’s model
and found that the K factor of Lumec’s Cobra-head luminaire could be reduced into around 0.01%.
At the request of Lumec, to verify the validity of Lumec’s inference, the LRC measured relative
light output of six Sealsafe luminaires, which had been installed at three different locations in
Montreal for 7 years. The LRC obtained the luminaire dirt depreciation factors (DE, DI, and DP) of
those luminaires. Based on the measurement data, the LRC proposes the next phase to determine
the K-factor of the Sealsafe luminaires.
2. List of symbols
ME: external dirt maintenance factor
MI: internal dirt maintenance factor
MP: permanent dirt maintenance factor
MD: total dirt maintenance factor (MD= ME*MI*MP)
DE: external dirt depreciation factor (DE=1-Me)
DI: internal dirt depreciation factor or dirt depreciation constant, K (DI = K = 1-MI)
DP: permanent dirt depreciation factor (DP=1-MP)
DD: total dirt depreciation factor (DD=1-MD)
1
“Respiration” is an expulsion of a quantity of air when a luminaire is heated up and an intake of a similar quantity of
air when the luminaire is cooled down after turned off in the morning. There is one cycle of breathing per day in
normal operation. “Diffusion” is caused by difference in pressure created by ambient wind. This results in airflow
through the various leakage paths depending on resistance of the paths. These processed, respiration and diffusion
allow outside air to enter the luminaire chamber and therefore are determinants of the internal dirt depreciation.
1
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
Sealsafe luminaire with a HPS lamp in the integrating sphere. Figure 1 shows the box in the
integrating sphere. Since the box, luminaire, and lamp themselves absorb a large amount of light,
corrections for the self-absorption were conducted by means of self-absorption factor (SAF)2. To
measure the SAF, an auxiliary lamp with a DC power supply was used. A reference ballast with an
AC power supply operated the lamp to stabilize the light output of the lamp. The voltage, current,
and wattage of the system (the lamp and ballast) were always monitored. The details of the lamp,
ballast, luminaires, computer, integrating sphere, auxiliary lamp, power supplies, ammeter, and
measurement systems are listed below.
Lamp: 100W high pressure sodium (HPS) lamp, LU100, OSRAM SYLVANIA
Reference ballast: Variable linear reactor, Model No. 20758A, WPI Power Systems Inc.
Sealsafe luminaire: 7HBS 100 HPS SC2 120 (six seven-year-old and a new luminaire)
Computer: Gateway 2000 with a GPIB interface
Software: LabView (Version 5.1)
Integrating sphere: 5’ integrating sphere of the LRC
Auxiliary lamp: 75Q/CL28V, OSRAM SYLVANIA
Power supplies: DC power supply (E3632A, Hewlett Packard) for a auxiliary lamp
AC power supply (Model 1001P, California Instruments) for HPS
Ammeter: 485 AUTORANGING PICOAMMETER, KEITHLEY
Power meter: 2532 Digital Power Meter, YOKOGAWA
Figure 1 A box holding a Sealsafe luminaire with a HPS lamp in the integrating sphere
2
For accurate measurements of light sources dissimilar from the reference source, corrections must be applied for self-
absorption. Especially, when measuring light outputs of luminaires, which usually absorb a large amount of light, the
corrections should precisely be conducted. To correct the self-absorption, the self-absorption factor, a ratio of light
output of an auxiliary lamp with an empty integrating sphere to the light output of the auxiliary lamp with the tested
luminaires in the integrating sphere, is used.
2
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
3.2. Procedures
The LRC conducted relative light output measurements for the six luminaires (Table 1). The LRC
measured the light output of the half of the 12 luminaires in Table 1 and Lumec measured the other
half. To calculate the permanent dirt maintenance factor, MP, the LRC measured the light output for
a new luminaire of the same type, luminaire #0.
Table 1 Luminaires
Lumec LRC
Residential #1, #2 #3, #4
Industry #5, #6 #7, #8
Heavy traffic #9, #10 #11, #12
The measurements using LRC’s 5’ integrating sphere followed the next steps:
1. Measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire with an old HPS lamp
2. Measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire with a new seasoned HPS lamp
3. Clean external portion of glass and measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire
4. Clean internal portion of glass and measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire
5. Clean internal reflector and measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire
6. Measure light output of a new luminaire with the new seasoned HPS lamp
In the steps 3, 4, and 5, the new seasoned HPS lamp was used.
The light output data measured every five seconds was recorded in the hard drive of the
computer.
After the measurement of each step, the self-absorption was measured.
The cleaning used fine towels with distilled water for external parts and micro-fiber cloth
without water for internal parts.
Prior to the measurements, the LRC conducted pilot tests to establish a precise photometric
procedure. The pilot tests allowed the LRC to determine the following:
Use the reference ballast rather than regular ballasts
Burn the HPS lamp in the new luminaire #0 over twelve hours to stabilize the light output of the
lamp and record the light output of the luminaire #0 everyday to check the repeatability of the
measurements
Burn the HPS lamp in a tested luminaire for at least one hour before each measurement
Measure the self-absorption factor of the empty sphere after the self-absorption measurements
of all luminaires every day to increase the precision of the measurement (this procedure was not
adopted for the luminaires #4 and #11)
Fasten the lamp holder tightly so that the lamp can be hold at the same position
Use a UV fluorescent lamp to inspect dust that remains in/on the chamber glass
These measurements determined external dirt maintenance factor (ME), internal dirt maintenance
factor (MI), and permanent dirt maintenance factor (MP) by the following equations:
ME = (measured value of step 2) / (measured value of step 3) (1)
MI = (measured value of step 3) / (measured value of step 5) (2)
MP = (measured value of step 5) / (measured value of step 6) (3)
3
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
An assumption behind the equation (3) was that the optical design and materials of the 7-year-old
luminaire, when it was new, are the same as those of the new luminaire made today by Lumec.
3.3. Results
Appendix A shows the light output data including date, time, internal and external temperatures of
the sphere, system voltage, current, and wattage. Appendix B shows the self-absorption
measurement data.
Table 2 summarizes the results of the relative output measurements in microvolt, which relatively
correspond to actual light outputs in lumen.
In Table 2, the columns of OUTPUT, OUT*SAF, and OUT*SAF*LDF show readings on the
ammeter; products of the readings on the ammeter and self-absorption factors; and products of the
4
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
readings on the ammeter, self-absorption factors, and lamp depreciation factors respectively. The
lamp depreciation factor (LDF) will be defined in the next paragraph.
Table 2 shows that the light output of the luminaire #0 continuously decreased from 58.7V to
57.0V (3% reduction in total). Although the HPS lamp was seasoned for more than one hundred
hours, the LRC assumed that the continuous reduction in light output might be mainly caused by
initial lamp depreciation. To compensate for the lamp lumen depreciation, the LRC developed a
correction factor (LDF), a ratio of the measured output value of the luminaire #0 measured on the
first day against / the measured value of the luminaire #0 measured on each day. Further analysis
will refer to the product, OUT*SAF*LDF.
Table 3 summarizes seven-year dirt depreciation calculated from the data in Table 2. Table 3 shows
that the external dirt depreciation for seven years, DE-7 was ranged from 3.9% to 13.1%. The
luminaire #12, which had been installed at the heavy traffic area, shows the highest value of the DE-
7.
The seven-year internal dirt depreciation, DI-7, ranges from –2.1 to 0.7. The luminaires #4 showed a
negative value, -2.1. This may be because the self-absorption of the luminaire #4 was not perfectly
corrected as mentioned before. If the luminaire #4 is excluded from the list, the average 7-year
internal dirt depreciation of the six luminaires is 0.48%. Therefore, the internal dirt depreciation
factor per year is 0.07%. If the luminaire #4 is included in the list, the average 7-year internal dirt
depreciation (DI-7) and the average annual internal dirt depreciation factor (DI) are 0.05% and 0.01
respectively. These values are obviously smaller than those of the external dirt depreciation (DE-7
and DE) values regardless of the locations where the luminaires were installed. Further, these
internal dirt depreciation factors, 0.07 and 0.01, are significantly lower than the factor, 0.5, which
Van Dusen gave the Cobra-head type luminaires based on his fundamental study.
5
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
With regard to the permanent dirt depreciation, assuming that the optical design and materials of
the 7-year-old luminaire, when it was new, are the same as those of the new luminaire made today,
the average seven-year permanent dirt depreciation (DP-7) and the average permanent dirt
depreciation (DP) are -0.73% and -0.10% respectively. These negative values indicate that the
above-mentioned assumption might be incorrect. Otherwise, the negative values might be within a
photometric error range. In all cases, the permanent dirt depreciation factor may be nearly “zero”.
The results of the measurements suggested that the internal dirt depreciation factor per year (DI) of
the Cobra-head type luminaires equipped with the Sealsafe chambers might be less than 0.5%, the
value suggested by Van Dusen, regardless of the locations where the luminaires were installed. The
results also suggested that the permanent dirt depreciation factor per year (DP) was nearly zero.
The measurements in the first phase allowed the LRC to confirm that determination of dirt
depreciation factors requires very precise photometric procedures. If Lumec is looking for a value
around 0.01% as the dirt depreciation factor per year for the Sealsafe chambers, it is important to
use more samples and use luminaires installed in an open air for a period longer than seven years.
For instance, if a ten-year-old luminaire is available, the measured value of the ten-year dirt
depreciation can be divided by ten to determine the annual dirt depreciation factor (K), so the
longer exposure period can improve the accuracy of the estimation.
What the LRC did not try in the first phase to decrease the uncertainty of the photometry was to
develop a standard halogen lamp that is optically equivalent to a HPS lamp. LRC’s pilot test found
that HPS lamps needed to be burned for at least five hours before the tests and the HPS lamps were
very sensitive to temperature fluctuation. Light outputs of halogen lamps are generally more stable
than those of HID lamps. Such a standard halogen lamp might cut down the pre-burning time and
increase the stability of the measurements.
6
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
The LRC also recommends comparing these data with other types of luminaires such as gasket
sealed or semi-sealed to document the advantages of the Sealsafe chamber over competitors’
products.
4.1. Procedure
The measurements in the second phase will attempt to carry out the following steps:
Lumec and the LRC select three locations from rural, industrial, and heavy traffic areas, where
Cobra-head Sealsafe luminaires have been installed for more than seven years in or near
Montreal.
Lumec and the LRC select a location from heavy traffic areas where Lumec’s lantern-type
Sealsafe luminaires have been installed for more than seven years in or near Montreal and
another location from heavy traffic areas where competitor’s luminaires have been installed for
more than seven years.
The LRC chooses eight luminaires from each of the five locations (40 luminaires in total).
Lumec remove the forty luminaires, pack them in boxes, and videotape the procedure.
The LRC transports the forty luminaires from Lumec to the LRC.
The LRC measure the forty luminaires following the same procedure established in the first
phase:
(1) Measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire with an old HPS lamp
(2) Measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire with a new seasoned HPS lamp
(3) Clean external portion of glass and measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire
(4) Clean internal portion of glass and measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire
(5) Clean internal reflector and measure light output of each 7-year-old luminaire
(6) Measure light output of a new luminaire with the new seasoned HPS lamp
The LRC determine luminaire dirt depreciation factors (DE and DI) based on the measurement data.
Reference
Van Dusen, H. 1971. Street lighting luminaire dirt Depreciation, Illuminating Engineering, pp. 122-
132.
7
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC
8
REPORT OF DIRT DEPRECIATION MEASUREMNET (PHASE 1) FOR LUMEC