Yard Lights
Modernization

The Two Rivers yard lights specifications are part of an agreement between the developer and the Village of Mukwonago.  They opted for individual lights instead of the more common standard street light.  Homeowners are responsible for maintaining their own light posts, although the ACB can engage an electrician on behalf of the homeowner, and bill the homeowner for needed repairs.  If enough homes do not maintain working, acceptable yard light, the Village may decide to install standard streetlight, at the expense of the subdivision residents. No one outside of the Two Rivers subdivision would be paying for them.  While it's impossible to know exact costs, the ACB has found information that 40' tall light posts would cost about $3500 each.  The posts and bulbs alone would probably cost about $250,000. This doesn't include cost of wiring, conduit, and other costs.  At the bare minimum, this would certainly work out to over $1000 per lot.  Maintaining existing yard lights is certainly much less expensive.  This is the reason the ACB takes light maintenance very seriously. 

The subdivision originally had sodium vapor bulbs, which require a ballast.  The ballasts used have an average life of 5 years.  The original ballasts are no longer made, and finding replacement ballasts is very difficult. The ACB has approved replacement bulbs, and has defined what type of bulb is acceptable.  These bulbs were evaluated on:
  • color (known in the light business as "temperature"
  • amount of light given off (known as "lumens")
The emergency services folks (police, fire, EMT) folks care about the strength (lumens) of the bulbs. Home buyers care about the color.  The ACB, in its mission to maintain property values and salability of homes, feels strongly that all replacement bulbs should be the same color.  If your yard light is in need of replacement or repair, here are the steps and criteria for maintaining the lights.

Steps:
  • bypass the transformer and run power directly to the photosensor and then to the bulb fixture.
  • replace the bulb with one that does not require a ballast.
  • You can either remove the ballast or just leave it in, not connected
  • Note that if the ballast is kept, the newer bulbs might be a little taller than you were expecting, requiring you to lift the "acorn" (the plastic light cover) a little higher.  If the ballast is removed, your electrician might need to replace the socket and mounting bracket.
Bulb criteria:
  • Must be at least 4000 lumens.  This is roughly a 300-watt equivalent.  Both compact fluorescents (CFL) and LED bulbs are sold locally that fit those ranges.  The energy consumption of the 300-watt equivalent LED and CFL is roughly equivalent to the old sodium vapor bulbs.
  • ​The color temperature should be around 5000K (five thousand degrees Kelvin, for the light aficionados in the room), often called "daylight" of "full spectrum" in lightbulb marketing materials.​
Please note that LED bulbs tend  to last longer than CFL bulbs, and LED bulbs tend to cost a bit more than CFL bulbs. The electricity consumption of CFL, LED, and sodium vapor bulbs are all in the same range for the desired light output.

The ACB is compiling a list of electricians that can fix or convert yard light. Stay tuned for some detailed information about this.