High-Bay HID lighting

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goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I recently re-lamped the gymnasium lights at my church's gym facility. All bulbs were 250 watt, mogul base, clear metal halide. Some of the bulbs glow with a greenish tint, some with a yellowish tint and some are pure white. All the bulbs are Phillips, all came from the same carton and all were left on for approx 1/2 hour. Does anyone know why there seems to be different color hues to each bulb ? It's really not a big deal. The gym is properly illuminated. It's just that when you look up at the ceiling it looks like a Wonder Bread commercial. :)
 

stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
I recently re-lamped the gymnasium lights at my church's gym facility. All bulbs were 250 watt, mogul base, clear metal halide. Some of the bulbs glow with a greenish tint, some with a yellowish tint and some are pure white. All the bulbs are Phillips, all came from the same carton and all were left on for approx 1/2 hour. Does anyone know why there seems to be different color hues to each bulb ? It's really not a big deal. The gym is properly illuminated. It's just that when you look up at the ceiling it looks like a Wonder Bread commercial. :)

New MH lamps can be unstable and vary in color. 100 hour burn-in time is recommended for optimum color and light.
 

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
It seems that all professional BB teams like to burn their news lights every night after they play. I'll give one the burn in factor, I can't defend after 100 hours. :mad:
 

chris kennedy

Senior Member
Location
Miami Fla.
Occupation
60 yr old tool twisting electrician
It seems that all professional BB teams like to burn their news lights every night after they play. I'll give one the burn in factor, I can't defend after 100 hours. :mad:

You are well aware of the fact that I can see Dolphins/Marlins stadium from where I live. I have also noticed the lights burning all night after a game. If this was for cleaning the stands, seems like they would shut ? of them off.
 

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Well that have to come up with some ideas during the Winter meetings.

Back to the OP did you note larger circuit sizes going out, did you do any load calc's?

Was the whiter light closer to the source ? :cool:

If you only turned on the coloring circuit did they change color, later?
 

Electric-Light

Senior Member
I have a group relamp (175 watt MH) of 88 fixtures to do Memorial Day weekend so I will be relamping Sat. morning and hoping to get about 70 hours burn time on the lamps before they reopen Tues. morning.

What is this for? Each 175W fixture uses around 210W with ballast. That's about 1,300kWh of electricity down the drain which is anywhere from $100 to $200.

Unless its going to be used for televised events right away, this is waste.
 

stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
What is this for? Each 175W fixture uses around 210W with ballast. That's about 1,300kWh of electricity down the drain which is anywhere from $100 to $200.

Unless its going to be used for televised events right away, this is waste.

This is a workroom for 50-60 watch repair technicians. I couldn't afford one of these watch's but I have heard P Diddy has one valued at $1,000,000. I'm sure you understand now.:cool:
 

Electric-Light

Senior Member
This is a workroom for 50-60 watch repair technicians. I couldn't afford one of these watch's but I have heard P Diddy has one valued at $1,000,000. I'm sure you understand now.:cool:

I would hate to work under metal halide. Those things are horrible, even worse than LEDs. Even in a supermarket, RE80 fluorescent lighting is much more visually pleasing. Maybe you can talk them into buying fluorescent? 4 lamp T8 standard BF will match the output of 175W MH. Instant restrike, instant on and half the power. (106W vs 205W)
 
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stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
I would hate to work under metal halide. Those things are horrible, even worse than LEDs. Even in a supermarket, RE80 fluorescent lighting is much more visually pleasing. Maybe you can talk them into buying fluorescent? 4 lamp T8 standard BF will match the output of 175W MH. Instant restrike, instant on and half the power. (106W vs 205W)

I doubt it..... I did the install three years ago and it was a costly one. The building has 30 ft. vaulted tongue and groove ceilings. Enclosed fixtures are pendant mounted and have metrolight electronic dimming ballasts. I believe the spec'd fixtures were chosen primarily for asthetics.
 

Electric-Light

Senior Member
I doubt it..... I did the install three years ago and it was a costly one. The building has 30 ft. vaulted tongue and groove ceilings. Enclosed fixtures are pendant mounted and have metrolight electronic dimming ballasts. I believe the spec'd fixtures were chosen primarily for asthetics.

What made you go with dimming HID rather than fluorescent?
 

stevebea

Senior Member
Location
Southeastern PA
What made you go with dimming HID rather than fluorescent?

I was simply the installer. They had a lighting design firm engineer the job. The MH fixtures on pendants are in keeping with the rest of the architecture and are very aesthetically pleasing. I believe this was as much or more of a consideration than as to the type of light.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
cadpiont said:
Back to the OP did you note larger circuit sizes going out, did you do any load calc's?
I did not do any load calc's. When the gym was newly built, as best I can remember, all the lamps illuminated with the same brightness. I did not do the original install but I'm sure that by the time I got to see that gym the lamps had already been in use for a week or so. There are two circuits with the same amount of fixtures (12) on each run. I can tell you that the original lamps were all Sylvania and the new ones are Phillips

Was the whiter light closer to the source ? :cool:
No. In fact the brightest ones are the furthest away from the source.

If you only turned on the coloring circuit did they change color, later?
I only had them on for about an hour after I relamped. I didn't know about "burn-in" time so I'll check them again in a week or so and see if anything changed.

Thanks for your input.
 
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