well here is the funny thing actually there is a "sidestep" in the law if the light is mounted before 1950 it can stay up there well moms house was made in 1948 and if u look at my pics how can u really tell that it was not put up in1950 ? so im not going to worry about it just another dumb law that will never come to light in this state. and i actually have a 175 watt merc clear in it do mers run a little cooler then halide ? when i changed a big 1000w mh at dealership and its dure to cycling holly molly that sucker was hot i use welding gloves to change it and it actually made my gloves almost combust i was like hot hot hot !!!!! any idea what temp my 175 watt merc is vs a 175 halide ? i change them but i do not knwo the temp stuff

I don't have the exact numbers, but halides run hotter and at a higher pressure than mercs which is why the halides run the risk of exploding if the arc tube is weak or the lamp is old and is run nonstop.

u know actuially most car dealerships out here anyways are metal halide and i dont liek them i say out of say 10 bulbs i have had 2 that have exploded in the fixture and i really do not like trying to clean up all the glass in a fixture especially over brand new cars so i cant say im a real halide fan !!! and when there 1000 watters its a damm big mess and when the powers on and all i have is a screw and a stem im not a very happy person on jobs lieke that and it seem sto be often !!!! well this past week anyway man they must really go bammmmm when they go 

I agree. 1000 watt MH lamps love to blow up when operated horizontally. Quite an headache to clean the glass out. Dangerous stuff for sure. 1000 watt MH lamps are safe when operated vertically, however.

The merc ban in Arizona is plain dumb. Did you know that clear mercury lamps are easier to filter out with nebula filters than HPS lamps? It's because clear mercury lamps have only a few spectral wavelengths. So they are the second easiest to filter out by the astromners, after LPS. The laws were passed to ban mercs in AZ because the dark sky people worry that people would buy the cheap NEMA yard lights for their barns. Regardless of the light source, NEMA yard lights are real glare bombs. They produce mostly horizontal rays which are not as effective in lighting an area than light pointed downward. You can get a mercury yard light with a skycap for true full cutoff lighting, yet even this is banned in the Tucson area. Compact fluorescent yard lights are also banned in Arizona unless they are below 65 watt I think.

and the funny part is do u think a cop is going to really look and see if its white/pink/yellow/or a green bulb i doubt it. tucson has it tougher i think becasue of the kitt peak telescopes

Goes to show how intelligent lawmakers are. The skycaps are a good point...if anything, to protect dark skies, there should be a law for full cut-off above certain wattages, not a ban. 

it is funny worry about lights and makes but dont watch the borders 

I am also questioning the long term effectiveness of outdoor lighting ordiances, especially when cities grow. San Diego HAD an outdoor lighting ordiance that required the use of low pressure sodium street lights because of the nearby Palomar Observatory. However San Diego grew quite a bit over the years leading to light pollution levels that became too much for the observatory to handle. Also the city decided they don't like the monochromatic light of LPS street lights, so they recently enacted a program to replace 2/3 of the LPS lights with HPS. LPS lights are still required within 30 miles of the observatory.

crazy i have 3 lps fixtures i bet they look awsome outside at night someday when i get a house ill hookone uo in the back yard

well we will all have to buy a few on ebay or such and that way we can have some for the next 50 yrs

Laws like this are often based on FALSE data. Two years ago California repealed the 30 year rolling smog exemption for cars when they turned 30 years old and instead froze it at 1975. It's well documented that a 1960s-1970s car emit the same amount of emissions as a 1980s car with a well tuned engine. It's just plain politics.

I read an article in a newspaper here in the Netherlands that California will ban the incandescent lamp.

yeah i just posted the link thx for the info what do u think bud ? i think its another joke here in arizona in a few years mercury vapor will be banned but ill buy mine from friends on the east coast or the internet ill be a merc hold out i bet the only one !!! in arizona  damm dark sky people !!! lol

plus every other metal halide bulb iv'e worked on has been shattered and not one merc vapor ever has

That is dummiest law I heard of!!!