using a 120v-277v led lamp in a 277v medium base socket

[CatDieselPower750]

Good Morning Folks!
I am looking for compliance information. We currently have Zumtobel lighting fed with 277v. on this rail we have many (1900 over several stores) HID fixtures that have 39 watt PAR 30 MH HID lamps. I am looking for a reasonable retrofit solution to LED. Our Sylvania rep gave me a 120-277v LED PAR30 medium base lamp to demo. My question is can I remove the HID ballast in the fixture assembly directly wiring the socket to the 277v feed and use this lamp? The lamp is rated at 277 and the socket is rated at 277. From what I read in 210-6-C-3 I would be ok with this. My main concern is safety. We have people of with limited knowledge in our stores changing lamps if they fail. I am not as worried about someone sticking their fingers in the sockets but main concern is if the LED lamp was to fail and they attempt to screw in the old MH HID lamp, some of our 120V only PAR 30 LED lamps or a regular incandescent 120V rated lamp. My other concern is by making this change, I assume I will violate the UL listing of the fixture so liability wise I am not sure if this is a good idea but if code allows and there is no issue with UL then I am legally covered. I attached a pic of the fixture. Thanks for the advice and help!

 

[iwire]

Code wise, UL wise you may only use lamps that the fixture labeling indicates.

Scrap the old fixtures entirely and purchase basic lamp holder type track heads.

 

[CatDieselPower750]

Thanks, that is what I figured code wise/UL wise. The fixtures mount to a specialized 3 circuit 277V "trunking" track system that has hundreds of linear fluorescent 4' T5 HO fixtures mounted to it set up in a track strip light system design for an architectural look within store aisle ways. The attached fixture is used in area they want to spot light a certain display and/or end cap. This system was designed to be modular plug and play so fixtures could be moved around as desired. We only are down to 3 options now A. Keep with the HID MH lamp that we relamp every year, B. Remove the fixture and 2' batten it is mounted on and replace with a blank to do away with these fixtures altogether, C. Purchase a new designed LED spot fixture assembly on a batten ($$$$ very costly per unit). The option I was thinking of with the medium base 277V lamp would have been a lesser cost win, but I don't want to pose an employee safety risk to save cash.

 

[broadgage]

If any standard metal halide lamp is inserted into a 277 volt lamp socket, there is no danger whatsoever, it simply wont start or light.
It takes a pulse of several thousand volts to start a metal halide lamp, they simply wont react to a 277 volt supply.

IMHO what you propose is safe, at least as safe as the original intended use of the equipment. It could be argued that you are actually making it safer due to the lower operating temperature and the absence of high voltage starting pulses.

Unfortunately though a pedantic AHJ or lawyer could argue that the listing has been violated by the modification, and by use of different lamps.

 

[iwire]

Unfortunately though a pedantic AHJ or lawyer could argue that the listing has been violated by the modification, and by use of different lamps.

Its not pedantic, it is just how it is.

There is a reason they list the acceptable lamp types.

I have spent they past couple of years doing a lot of LED retrofits and there are ways of doing them that do not run into UL or code issues.