METAL HALIDE LIGHTING - A GOOD CHOICE FOR COST SAVINGS

A metal-halide lamp is an electric lamp that produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halide (compounds of metals with bromine or iodine). It is a type of high-intensity

discharge (HID) gas discharge lamp.[1] Developed in the 1960s, they are similar to mercury vapor lamps,[1] but contain additional metal halide compounds in the quartz arc tube, which improve the efficacy and color rendition of the light. The most common metal halide compound used is sodium iodide. Once the arc tube reaches its running temperature, the sodium dissociates from the iodine, adding orange and reds to the lamp's spectrum from the sodium D line as the metal ionizes. As a result, metal-halide lamps have high luminous efficacy of around 75 - 100 lumens per watt,[2] which is about twice that of mercury vapor lights and 3 to 5 times that of incandescent lights[1] and produce an intense white light.

Lamp life is 6,000 to 15,000 hours.[2][3] As one of the most efficient sources of high CRI white light, metal halides as of 2005 were the fastest growing segment of the lighting industry.[1] They are used for wide area overhead lighting[2] of commercial, industrial, and public spaces, such as parking lots, sports arenas, factories, and retail stores,[1] as well as residential security lighting

A "cold"lamp cannot immediately begin producing its full light capacity because the temperature and pressure in the inner arc chamber require time to reach full operating levels. Starting the initial argon arc sometimes takes a few seconds, and the warm up period can be as long as five minutes (depending upon lamp type). During this time the lamp exhibits different colors as the various metal halides vaporize in the arc chamber.

If power is interrupted, even briefly, the lamp's arc will extinguish, and the high pressure that exists in the hot arc tube will prevent restriking the arc; with a normal ignitor a cool-down period of 5–10 minutes will be required before the lamp can be restarted, but with special ignitors and specially designed lamps, the arc can be immediately re-established. On fixtures without instant restrike capability, a momentary loss of power can mean no light for several minutes. For safety reasons, many metal-halide fixtures have a backup tungsten-halogen incandescent lamp that operates during cool-down and restrike. Once the metal halide restrikes and warms up, the incandescent safety light is switched off. A warm lamp also tends to take more time to reach its full brightness than a lamp that is started completely cold.

Most hanging ceiling lamps tend to be passively cooled, with a combined ballast and lamp fixture; immediately restoring power to a hot lamp before it has re-struck can make it take even longer to relight, because of power consumption and heating of the passively cooled lamp ballast that is attempting to relight the lamp.

Metal halide lighting is becoming a more popular choice for installation in industrial facilites due to operational cost savings and higher lumens than other types of lighting.