Hi.

I came across old Helvar-magazine from 1965 wich had this advertisement of ballast for VHO and HO lamps. In the advertisement Helvar states that HO lamps has been reaching great popularity over short time and envisage that those will be even more popular in the future. That juxt made me wonder what happened then? I have never seen HO or VHO fixture myself except in pictures. so Where did they dissappear? How about rest of the Europe, is/has HO lamps been how popular in there?

the Text of the ad is only in finnish and swedish but here is a picture of it:http://www.whitenightcape.com/IMG_0881.JPG

Never heard or seen HO/VHO lamps in Europe. I also heard that T17 lamps were used in Europe. In my area T8 preheat fluorescent is very common for office / workshop lighting.

Here in the US i see VHO lamps used for Aquariums or sometimes Plants, but i don't remember ever seeing a VHO in general use... maybe if in your area you have any aquarium/tropical-fish stores that sell saltwater fish, they'll have VHO lights on some of the tanks.
Brightness of the VHO's is quite impressive LOL

VHO and HO T12 lamps are all american made and in use only in the US. We have also 110W HO T12s because Gaash lighting and Eltam produces fixtures and high power factor rapidstart magnetic ballasts for them. But the lamps themselves are all US made (Most of them are Philips ALTO which have the same brightness as regular T12s and even less). European T12 lamps of HO and VHO are really non exists.
Krypton buffered T5 HO as well as VHO (Philips lighting europe only) lamps are exist in the european market and they are twice in brightness and even more then the US T12 HO and VHO lamps which are neon buffered.

I did an electrical job near Atlanta, refurbishing/repairing fixtures in a warehouse for the landlord before he rented it to another tenant.  It was lit entirely with 8' VHO Lithonia Lighting fixtures.  Interestingly enough, Lithonia Lighting used to own the place!  These fixtures have the vertical slot lampholders, which are deep enough for the 215 watt PG17 (Power Groove) lamps.  These are BRIGHT fixtures!!  The warehouse has around 100 fixtures in it.  HO and VHO lighting is popular in cold climate/cold storage use.  I have another customer with HO (110) watt fixtures.  I use non ALTO Philips F96T12/DX/HO lamps in their fixtures.  HO and VHO lamps, when properly driven, are MUCH brighter than F96 slimlines.

Lithonia actually still makes some luminaires that take VHO lamps.  Interesting thing is, the code you add in the model number to indicate this is PG!

Lithonia actually still makes some luminaires that take VHO lamps.  Interesting thing is, the code you add in the model number to indicate this is PG!

Interesting!  Well, in order to accommodate the PG lamps, the lampholders are "taller" to set them further from the reflector.  The ones I have seen also turn the slots vertically in relation to the fixture.  Nice to know they are still made.  F96T17 PowerGroove lamps are still being produced also.

I've seen one VHO lamp in Britain, it was a 4ft 115W which had been installed in temporary worker's cabin thing on a building site. That's the only one I've ever seen so they can't have been that popular!

The lamp company sells several HO and VHO lamps in Britain here: http://www.lampco.co.uk/results.asp?page=2&section=Lamps&capcat=Tubes&watt=101-250W , those are only the tubes rated 115W and above but they sell others.

Something else interesting is that they sell single pin tubes rated at standard wattages, HO, VHO and some other odd ones, I know they designed for explosion proof lighting but I've never seen one. As far as I was aware magnetic instant start ballast that apply a high voltage to strike the tube don't exist here yet this company sells the lamps so they must do? The only ballast I know of that's known as 'instant start' is the quick-start ballast which preheats the cathodes for a split second.

I've seen one VHO lamp in Britain, it was a 4ft 115W which had been installed in temporary worker's cabin thing on a building site. That's the only one I've ever seen so they can't have been that popular!

The lamp company sells several HO and VHO lamps in Britain here: http://www.lampco.co.uk/results.asp?page=2&section=Lamps&capcat=Tubes&watt=101-250W , those are only the tubes rated 115W and above but they sell others.

Something else interesting is that they sell single pin tubes rated at standard wattages, HO, VHO and some other odd ones, I know they designed for explosion proof lighting but I've never seen one. As far as I was aware magnetic instant start ballast that apply a high voltage to strike the tube don't exist here yet this company sells the lamps so they must do? The only ballast I know of that's known as 'instant start' is the quick-start ballast which preheats the cathodes for a split second.

Yes those single pin lamps are odd. Even standart wattages single pin lamps are rare in Finland. Those bi-pin 115W lamps seems to be pretty expensive. Hmmmm, The fate of VHO lamps seems to remain mystery. Maybe I should try contact Helvar and ask them about it. they could have some info.

Edit: I wrote an email to helvar about those ballast, hope they can give some info.

Yes those single pin lamps are odd. Even standart wattages single pin lamps are rare in Finland. Those bi-pin 115W lamps seems to be pretty expensive. Hmmmm, The fate of VHO lamps seems to remain mystery. Maybe I should try contact Helvar and ask them about it. they could have some info.

Edit: I wrote an email to helvar about those ballast, hope they can give some info.

Hopefully they will reply, I've emailed companies before and sometimes they never reply, other times they seem only too happy to help. Here in Britain T12 tubes are being banned by the EU in 2012, I can't find any detailed information about it but I'm assuming and hoping that these rather rare explosion proof tubes wont be banned due to the fact that they're a special purpose lamp and there isn't many of them in service.

I'm going to be starting my first course training to become an electrical engineer in a couple of months and when all that's done and I'm working hopefully I will come across one of these lamps sometime. I'm sure I'll be able to find some VHOs too, hopefully I might even be able to get one for my collection!

The HO and VHO tubes are a small niche in Europe but still several hundred thousand a year are sold.  Both GE and Sylvania continue to import them from USA and Canada.  Most of them are used in supermarket freezer display cabinets and outdoor signs - especially the F96T12 110W tube is rather popular, it is excellent for maintaining high efficacy at low ambient temperatures.  Some older industrial sites also use them for general lighting.  Much of the Sylvania factory where I work in Belgium is lit with the 8' 215W and 110W tubes.

Today I got respond from Helvar. unfortunately they could not give much info as since the filing was pretty manual thing back in 70's there would not be much info left.(said most of the papers from that era were already destroyed) He had found thought a spec sheet from 1970 so those were manufactured atlest then.

you can see this document in pd format in: http://www.whitenightcape.com/suurtehokuristimet.PDF

btw. those ballast have been pretty heavy if 1-lamp ballast has weight about 7kg.

How about rest of the Europe, is/has HO lamps been how popular in there?

I just learned from this thread that such things exist at all...

For applications requiring lamps of more than 65 W the standard choice of the past was here MV.

I've seen some HO and VHO ( PG, not T12) when I lived in France.

Powergrooves were used widely in carnivals and fairs, at the candy / ice cream / churros booths. I always wondered what those odd lamps were.

I also worked in a neon shop a while ago, and they told me they used to fit HO bulbs in fluorescent backlit signs in the 60's and 70's. I even saw a few bars in Paris that had long T12 bulbs under their canopy, outside.

An electrical parts and lights warehouse in the south of France had an old box of F96T12 HO by GE made in Canada. I bought one for the heck of it, and no one in the shop remembered they had those, the order date was very old and they couldn't give me a price because it wasn't even listed in their computer database.

My guess is those disappeared quickly because "stuff-is-smaller" in Europe, and they didn't see the convenience or the need to keep those. Also because I believe that because Europe is a very old continent, they tend to evolve much faster when it comes to basic, everyday technology, such as lighting.

Here in Switzerland the 8ft VHO Power Groove was quite popular till the late 90's. There are still several industrial places lit by VHO lamps.

It is also quite easy to get new tubes and replacement RDC lampsockets. But those are rather expensive.

The VHO RS ballast were available till the late 80's, on special demand till the mid 90's.

The other kind of HO/VHO tubes used here were the 2ft 40W, 4ft 115W and 5ft 140W tubes, both types having a Starterstrip for RS circuits and Bi pin base.