Most commercial property owners hire out the maintenance of their parking
lot pole lights to electrical contractors. These electrical contractors
sign the property owner to a lucrative maintenance contract which involves
a monthly charge even when service is not needed and highly marked up
material charges when service is needed. Bucket truck maintenance professionals
buy HID lamps and ballasts for wholesale and charge the property owner
two to three times retail for these parts. This all takes place because
the light heads are mounted to the light poles 20 to 30 feet in the
air. If they were lower, a maintenance man could change a lamp or ballast.
Other commercial property owners and managers wait until several bulbs
are out to avoid paying the "show up" charge. This approach
is even worse. First, the lighting maintenance contractor and the property
owner do not have a relationship so the highest price for service is
charged. Second, the parking lot becomes darker and darker, sales and
traffic slow and potential for crime, an accident or lawsuit increases.
That's not the worst of it. Just as a mechanic will tell you, if you
do not address the problem now it will cost you more later. Outdoor
lighting is the same. If you do not replace the metal halide or high
pressure sodium lamp, the ballast works harder to start a lamp that
will never ignite. After a short period of time (while you are waiting
for more lamps to burn out), the ballast could burn up. If the ballast
melts, a circuit could be shorted causing a breaker to trip. When the
breaker trips all of the lights on that circuit go out. Now you have
a crisis. You or your tenants have no lights on. It's hard to get customers
to pull into a darkened parking lot. Murphy's Law states that this will
happen to you at your busiest time, (weekends for restaurants and Christmas
for retail) Lots of sales lost and time and a half charged by your
electrician. Let's talk for a minute about wages, in 1995 the average
show up charge for electricians was $37-$40. Now, the average price is between
$75-$90 because of increases to wages, fuel charges and insurance. Furthermore,
these expenses are expected to rise. Also worthy of mention, ballasts
still use electricity even if the lamp has burned out. You are paying
for lighting you are not getting. The decision to wait for more lamps
to burn out has caught up with you.
It sounds grim but there is a solution. More and more saavy property
owners are turning to retropole to help control their maintenance costs.
Our light lowering system allows a property owner, property manager
or maintenance man to safely and easily lower the light head for fast
lamp replacement. Because the ballast is also in the light fixture,
ballast replacement is also fast and easy. Retropole works on almost
any 30 foot light pole. Here is a short list of pole light manufacturers
that Retropole will work with, Hubbel Lighting, Lithonia, Techlight,
Guardco, GE Lighting, Kim Lighting, discount lighting, wholesale lighting,
lighting design, Cooper Lighting, American Lighting and many others
