How common are HPS high bay fixtures? It seems like there would be almost none of them because high bays are used where color is usually important.

How common are HPS high bay fixtures? It seems like there would be almost none of them because high bays are used where color is usually important.

Heavy industry (steel foundries,...) or so...

Heavy industry (steel foundries,...) or so...

I was thinking of places like gymnasiums and warehouses.

There the higher color rendering became required as well (when it is not with such huge premium cost as it was the case some decade ago).
The technology  had matured so it is quite well predictable, when to replace the bulbs and do other maintenance to prevent unexpected failures.
Or how to tackle them (twin arc lamps, fixture pairs with both lamps parallel on a single ballast to get redundancy so prevent cycling,...)

There the higher color rendering became required as well (when it is not with such huge premium cost as it was the case some decade ago).
The technology  had matured so it is quite well predictable, when to replace the bulbs and do other maintenance to prevent unexpected failures.
Or how to tackle them (twin arc lamps, fixture pairs with both lamps parallel on a single ballast to get redundancy so prevent cycling,...)

So heavy industry now needs high color rendering?

Depends which..

One place where i worked as IT had big warehouses, most of which were lit with checkerboard pattern of highbays of 250W Merc and 150W HPS

The shadows were colorful and weird looking, but visibility in the place was excellent, and so was the reliability of the system (never seen lamps out, allthough there was no on-site maintenance personnel, all replacements were done once in a year or so, by electrician that would come and swap a few lamps which appeared color shifted or dim to him)

Hot restrike was like : random few of the HPS restrike immediately, the rest flash on the ignitors and most of them restrike within half minute or so. 5 minutes there is only HPS light. Then the Mercs start coming up

If only that was done here. You just have to get a PSMH high bay and get rid of the ignitor.

They are VERY common here in the USA. 

They are VERY common here in the USA. 

For some reason, I almost never see them.

Last year I saw tons of them in a garbage processing facility. Mind you, it literally smelled worse than inside sewers there (don't ask how I know that. it's nasty.)

Last year I saw tons of them in a garbage processing facility. Mind you, it literally smelled worse than inside sewers there (don't ask how I know that. it's nasty.)

Maybe the ballast is burning up?

Quote from: Zarlog on September 01, 2016, 06:34:21 PM

Last year I saw tons of them in a garbage processing facility. Mind you, it literally smelled worse than inside sewers there (don't ask how I know that. it's nasty.)

Maybe the ballast is burning up?

No, the fixtures don't smell, the facility did. 

Can't they just install some air fragrance spreaders?

Can't they just install some air fragrance spreaders?

No. It's a huge facility plus the smell was so overpowering you could smell it even when you weren't breathing. 

Quote from: wattMaster on September 01, 2016, 06:47:27 PM

Can't they just install some air fragrance spreaders?

No. It's a huge facility plus the smell was so overpowering you could smell it even when you weren't breathing. 

What about a lot of ventilation?