What size light would you use?

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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
My customer (funeral parlor) has two flood lights pointing down from the 3rd floor attic on part of the parking lot. They are 150 watt hps but both have bad ballasts. I told him I don't think they would have done much at that height anyway. They have been out awhile. I was thinking to replace them with just 500 watt quartz floods. They point straight down to avoid glare on the neighboring building and they only use them for a few hours when they have a wake. Any suggestions? Thanks
 
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Volta

Senior Member
Location
Columbus, Ohio
Might only have an expected energized lifespan of 2000 hours. What about 400 W metal-halide (multi-vapor)?

How large is the parking lot? If you need to throw the light very far maybe larger.
 
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hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
GerryB said:
My customer (funeral parlor) has two flood lights pointing down from the 3rd floor attic on part of the parking lot. They are 150 watt hps but both have bad ballasts. I told him I don't think they would have done much at that height anyway. They have been out awhile. I was thinking to replace them with just 500 watt quartz floods. They point straight down to avoid glare on the neighboring building and they only use them for a few hours when they have a wake. Any suggestions? Thanks
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A 500 watt quartz is about 9500 lumen's, and a 150 watt pule start metal halide is over 13500 lumen's, by going to the 500 watt quartz not only will you be changing the bulb more often 2k hrs compared to 20,000 hrs, but you will have quite a bit less light, 19000 lumen's verses 27000, you would be much better off sticking with a PS metal halide or HPS, I myself prefer PS MH over HPS because the white light is more in the useful color range of the human eyes and always seems much brighter over HPS.

Also keep in mind that going from 300 watts of energy to over 1,000 watts you will add way more cost to the customers electric bill for less light, the other problem is if the circuit has other loads by adding the extra 700 watts could cause the circuit to be overloaded.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
It is a game of compromise and first thing that needs to be done is set some goals of what you want to accomplish.

No matter what the goals are, quartz lites probably do not meet any of them aside from low initial cost. And though they may claim a life of 2000 hrs, that number usually declines as the sockets deteriorate and it will seem like you need to change the lamps constantly at some point.

If you want softer light with better distribution you probably are spending more money no matter what you come up with.

Wall packs and wall mounted floods are the "cheap way" to go but will have limitations. Pole lights, bollard lights, other wall lights that take architectural considerations into account will have a price tag associated with them, but can look like a million bucks compared to a couple of basic flood lights.
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
Thanks for the replies. I've thrown out the quartz light idea. For a starter I am going to change one ballast in the existing 150watt hps light and see if it gives enough light on the parking area 30 feet down. They have nothing now and are just looking for some illumination as people walk in and out. Before I do that I am going to discuss a new installation down lower.
 
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GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
GerryB said:
Thanks for the replies. I've thrown out the quartz light idea. For a starter I am going to change one ballast in the existing 150watt hps light and see if it gives enough light on the parking area 30 feet down. They have nothing now and are just looking for some illumination as people walk in and out. Before I do that I am going to discuss a new installation down lower.
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Are these third floor attic fixtures accessible without running a ladder up the side of the building? If so keeping them there may be preferable to mounting them in a less accessible location lower down. You can control the beamspread and therefore coverage area by choice of luminaire.
 
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GoldDigger

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Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
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electricguy61 said:
They are some real nice LED wall packs available:
http://www.e-conolight.com/shop-by-product/led-products/led-wall-pack.html

and floodlights:
http://www.e-conolight.com/shop-by-product/led-products/led-floodlight.html
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Just avoid the cool white models for this use, since they will have a very cold institutional appearance which I do not think the funeral home will want.
Some people even feel that the natural white is too cold compared to the old incandescents. (Although definitely more reasonable than HPS or most MH.)
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
mjf said:
Need to know the size and shape of the parking area to be illuminated. 30 feet really isn't very high as far as lighting goes.
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The parking area runs parallel with the building and is probably 30 feet wide or so. (one row of cars is all you can park). These two 3rd floor lights are about in the center. The rear of the building is a garage that is lower and I am going to install a 65 watt cfl flood that I have used before and are good for that height and distance. (supposed to be about 300 watt equivalence). There is a street light near the front entrance to the lot, so they really just need some light in the center area. Thanks for your input.
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
electricguy61 said:
They are some real nice LED wall packs available:
http://www.e-conolight.com/shop-by-product/led-products/led-wall-pack.html

and floodlights:
http://www.e-conolight.com/shop-by-product/led-products/led-floodlight.html
Click to expand...

I have seen the LED's in the supply house but haven't installed any except for some robotic motion floods another customer bought. Have you seen them?
They swivel about 180 degrees as you walk by. You can set them to light during the day or just at night and there is an SD? card in it that records 20 seconds of video. They were pretty cool but I heard the reviews were not that good.
 
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GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
GerryB said:
I have seen the LED's in the supply house but haven't installed any except for some robotic motion floods another customer bought. Have you seen them?
They swivel about 180 degrees as you walk by. You can set them to light during the day or just at night and there is an SD? card in it that records 20 seconds of video. They were pretty cool but I heard the reviews were not that good.
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Somehow, I think a parking lot light that follows you from the door to your car would be just too creepy for people leaving a wake. :)
 
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abhishekbt

Member
Location
California
Did you find the solution for your query? I was just wondering full-fledged developed thread about the size and nothing else. Just share you answer and explanation with also to be helpful in future.
 
mjf

mjf

Senior Member
Location
The incredible, yet very expensive, Hudson Valley,
GerryB said:
The parking area runs parallel with the building and is probably 30 feet wide or so. (one row of cars is all you can park). These two 3rd floor lights are about in the center. The rear of the building is a garage that is lower and I am going to install a 65 watt cfl flood that I have used before and are good for that height and distance. (supposed to be about 300 watt equivalence). There is a street light near the front entrance to the lot, so they really just need some light in the center area. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

He did decide.
 
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