HID Light Bulbs
High Intensity Discharge light bulbs (HID bulbs) are an excellent option for energy efficient lighting. They are in use almost everywhere, from the local grocery store, to the warehouses and factories, to the parking lots and highway lights. HID light bulbs are simply the most efficient method of lighting large areas, where color rendering and quality are not extremely important factors. Some HID lighting is a subdued orange color, like so many street lights tend to be. This does not mean that HID's must be that way, as many of them are actually in the cool white part of the light spectrum. All of this type of light bulb have extremely long life cycles, many as high as 20,000 hours or more. This helps justify the higher initial cost of HID lighting systems.
The most important and most popular member of the HID lighting family is Metal Halide light bulbs. It's a bulb-within-a-bulb idea, where an arc tube is placed inside a larger bulb. The arc tube causes the halides inside to glow, and glow brightly, offering a very high lumens per watt ratio. In other words, you can use very little energy to produce a whole lot of light! Metal Halides come in two main shapes, and a few less common ones. The most popular in use is the BT28 or BT37 shape. These are typically put in high bay light fixtures, high above the environment where people are. The ED17 shape is longer and thinner, and is used in places where space is at a premium. The lesser known PAR shape Metal Halide flood bulb is used when all of the light produced needs to be directed in one way or another. There are a lot of other metal halide shapes and sizes, most commonly used in highly specialized medical equipment. Metal Halides provide a good quality of color rendering and a very favorable color temperature of 4100K, which is often referred to as cool white.
Mercury Vapor bulbs are the older technology and as such have characteristics that make them less desirable than Metal Halides. Mercury light bulbs provide a cool white light, but tend to change the color of light output as the life of the bulb passes. That is to say, the older the bulb gets, the more color shift will take place. This happens with all HID bulbs, but Mercury Vapor light bulbs are particularly susceptible. Some of the common Mercury bulbs are the ED28 and ED17 models. While Sylvania used to make a PAR lamp in this style, they are no longer available, as the Metal Halide popularity has far surpassed the need for a Mercury vapor model. There are R30 and R40 models available for spot and flood lighting purposes.
High Pressure Sodium light bulbs are the longest lasting HID bulbs, but they are also the poorest color rendering and color temperature models by far. High Pressure Sodium bulbs (HPS bulbs) are very orange in color and generally cause objects in the light to appear a very muted or even different color than it should be. Needless to say, most artists or car paint shops would not be satisfied with this type of lighting! However, due to the fact that the bulbs are relatively inexpensive, they do serve well in certain applications. The most popular by far is in street lighting. Keeping enough light in your community is important, but having bright, white light would not be necessary and would actually be undesirable for the citizens who are trying to get a good night's sleep! Many other parking lots still use Low Pressure Sodium or High Pressure Sodium light bulbs, but more and more, they are turning to the whiter and better color rendering of the Metal Halides.
Whatever your HID bulb needs, whether they be for High Pressure Sodium, Mercury Vapor, or Metal Halide, we can help you find what you are looking for. Our friendly and knowledgeable service representatives are on hand from 8 AM to 5 PM, Central Time, Monday through Friday to assist you. Service Lighting, established in 1951...now, light years ahead!
