[alany1312]

I am looking to put up a street/area light on my property and need a little help choosing the right one for me. I have narrowed it down to two lights.

1- 150 watt pulse start Metal Halide light
2- 175 watt Mercury Vapor light

Of these two lights, which one would be brighter and light up more area? What are the pros and cons of both lights? From my research, they both seem to be close in performance but I want opinions from people who have worked with them. I will try and post a link to them both.

 

[ddawg16]

It's my understanding Mercury Vapor lights are not legal for sale any more.

Getting past that, MH is better...

But....HPS (High Pressure Sodium) is even better....but a close second would be LED....which is about par to MH.

Advantage of LED....easier to scale to your needs and longer life. So, instead of just one bulb, you can have several....and instant on.

 

[Oso954]

My understanding is that if they were in stock prior to Jan 1 2016, they can sold.

But who wants to buy a phased out fixture.

The phase out applies to general lighting fixtures, not those used in industrial processes.

 

[joed]

LED is also instant on. No warm up time time like the others.

 

[herdfan]

I
Getting past that, MH is better...

But....HPS (High Pressure Sodium) is even better....but a close second would be LED....which is about par to MH.

Advantage of LED....easier to scale to your needs and longer life. So, instead of just one bulb, you can have several....and instant on.

The problem with both MH and HPS is the degradation curve over time, especially with MH. Light out put will drop quickly during the first 5,000 or so hours and flatline at around 40% of original light output. Yet still use the same amount of electricity.

LED may be more expensive, but a good RAB will give you 100,000 hours with only a 30% degradation at the 50,000 hour mark.

Plus a 102W LED will put out the equivalent of a 250-400 watt MH, so depending on where you are and the cost of electricity, the cost savings could be substantial.

 

[Bud9051]

Will this light be on your meter or a flat rate from the power company? The couple of flat rate street lights I have run into up here were way more expensive than DIY on your own meter. Then, my vote would be for the LED.

To add, there have been a couple of article up here (very expensive electricity) where town have switch all of their street lights over to LED at a substantial savings, factoring in bulb changes and life time.

Bud

 

[Jump-start]

Mercury vapor is no longer made, and uses more power for the same light, but the bulb will last longer. MH lamps have an igniter that can fail. The smaller bulbs only last about 10-12,000 hours while mercury can easily go for 24,000 hours plus. Also the light output color:

Coated MV is a warm pink / white cream color

Clear MV is sharp green/blue

MH is white to warm white.

 

[Speedy Petey]

NO WAY I'd go with either one in today's world. LED all the way.

I have used LED for yard lights for the past few years with not one complaint or negative feedback.

HID yard lights are CHEAPLY made and WILL need maintenance and lamp replacement. LED will just need to be replaced in 10-15 years, or more.

SimKar are very affordable and well made. RAB are very good as well.

 

[sparky48]

LED would be the way to go in my opinion. You would be very happy with the performance vs MV or MH.

 

[Awek99]

If you don't mind the maintenance, cheapest option would most likely be MH, but the smartest option would be LED.

 

[circuitman]

as for the mercury vapor , the bulbs are still readily avaliable .the fixtures that they go in are not sold anymore, but can be readily found on fleabay. i put a mh for a family member , & i really like it.just my 2 cents.:vs_cool::vs_cool::vs_cool:

 

[MrElectricianTV]

NO WAY I'd go with either one in today's world. LED all the way.

I have used LED for yard lights for the past few years with not one complaint or negative feedback.

HID yard lights are CHEAPLY made and WILL need maintenance and lamp replacement. LED will just need to be replaced in 10-15 years, or more.

SimKar are very affordable and well made. RAB are very good as well.

I agree with Speedy. LED is the way to go.

 

[ddawg16]

as for the mercury vapor , the bulbs are still readily avaliable .the fixtures that they go in are not sold anymore, but can be readily found on fleabay. i put a mh for a family member , & i really like it.just my 2 cents.:vs_cool::vs_cool::vs_cool:

I never understood the logic of installing something that is already obsolete....

Do you guy Tube TV's because they are real cheap?

 

[alany1312]

Thanks to you all for the info. I did some research into the LED lights and I didn't realize they had as many styles as they do. I was originally told that I could only get the square shoe-box fixtures in LED. My bad for believing that and not checking it out. This is a light that will be going up beside a pond on my property so I need it to cover as much area as possible, in all directions. It will be on my dime and not the flat rate from the power company. The pole has been up for a couple of weeks and I just got the wire in the ground and covered up a few days ago. I saw a 70 watt LED Dusk-To-Dawn light that should really light the place up. I don't have any neighbors to complain if it's too bright and since it's on my meter, I can turn it off if I need to. Again, thanks for the info and getting me going in the right direction. Now that you know what I'm doing, any suggestions on a specific LED light? Trying to stay under $300.

 

[lance80]

Check out the Hubbell DDL series LED fixtures. This is one of Hubbells better selling outdoor fixtures, so chances are where ever you live someone is going to stock it.

http://www.hubbelloutdoor.com/content/products/psg/psg_files/hol_ddl_ledpsg.pdf

The best price/warranty LED out there that I have seen come from Deco Lighting. https://www.getdeco.com

10 year parts and labor, and their fixtures are testing to well over 200k hours because they under drive their LED chips. Problem with Deco is finding someone local who sells it.

Avoid Cree, Home Depot/Lowes, or random internet Chinese knock off unless you like gambling. And don't waste your time with MH or MV. You will spend considerably more over the life of the fixture compared to LED, and it's not even close.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[circuitman]

I never understood the logic of installing something that is already obsolete....

Do you guy Tube TV's because they are real cheap?

actually some of the old stuff lasted a lot longer than the throw aay stuff of today, back then you could repair it. today it is just throw it away & buy another.plus stuff lasted a lot longer.some of this stuff may be obsolete but will outlast the new stuff, because quality was built back then , not quanity. just my thoughts!:biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2: