Mercury Bann « on: July 15, 2008, 01:29:54 AM » Author: GE M-400A1
My town which has 40,000 people and is very very old want's to put a ban on ALL mercury vapor and metal halide lamps. We have about 150 mercury fixtures: TuDors OV-20 OV-15 OV-50 M-1000 OV-25 M-400 According to a local lineman. We are a big Westy town and very little GE's. Well i am fighting it on this friday at the city council meeting. i will bring a lot of facts to try to change their minds. I am not that prepaired so could you guys help me please. Also i will be bringing some other linemen with me to help stop the ban. I am so excited for that friday night!!! Those city nuts better not the dark sky loosers. those dark sky nuts are a bunch of misguided, comunist, nut jobs who don't have a damn clue as to what they hell are talking about.(sorry dark sky lovers) Please help me get some facts!! Thanks lot.
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1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi

	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #1 on: July 15, 2008, 06:32:23 AM » Author: FGS
Yikes!! That's not good at all. Please show them this link. Tell them to ignore the first paragraph as it describes the fixture itself. I hope that will change their minds about banning white lights. (Hopefully they aren't IDA's goons (Sorry IDA fans), who will never listen to reasons, but average folks who are simply misunderstanding the facts being presented.)
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #2 on: July 15, 2008, 10:45:21 AM » Author: TudorWhiz
Don't ban, just change the glass into flat FCO glass and keep the fixtures...cheaper that way
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #3 on: July 15, 2008, 12:10:36 PM » Author: GE M-400A1
Where will you get the FCO lenses for all the old fixtures like the ov-20 m-1000 and the ov-50.
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1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi

	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #4 on: July 15, 2008, 12:23:27 PM » Author: TudorWhiz
OV-20 is considered really old, so those could be "preserved fixtures" Frederick turned the OV-20s to HPS...and sometimes uses retrofit HPS lamps for MV ballasts
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #5 on: July 15, 2008, 07:14:43 PM » Author: GE M-400A1
I think i will bring up the Unalux lamp which is a retrofit for mercury. Cheaper then buying FCO lenses or new fixtures
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1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi

	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #6 on: July 15, 2008, 07:59:19 PM » Author: TudorWhiz
That's good.....but one of the problems is they are more expensive lamps than regular lamps... Also for a good defense........those lamps do not cycle when they die......they just shift colors very slowly......(I've seen that in Frederick....never seen one light completely out or dead) but eventually the lamp will completely go out which is better for the gears... Also point out that newer HPS fixtures do not last long and has more parts to fail....meaning more costly maintaince, new fixtures (I've seen fixtures that don't even make it 6 months nowdays) also point out that the Retrofit lamps for MV ballasts will not be annoying like cycling HPS....which could be annoying if in front of a window... But from what I know...they don't make retrofit HPS for 100 watt MV lamps which is what I think Frederick had reballasted....the ones that had 100 watt MV lmaps....they simply changed ballast... Yeah cobraheads can be retrofitted to new HPS...ballast but can be junk and fail.....so......there's plus and negatives for each...
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #7 on: July 15, 2008, 10:55:13 PM » Author: GE M-400A1
I am going to bring some examples like my american electric model 125 and show them the Unalux lamp works on a MV ballast. Also i will show them the amount of work that they don't have to go through if they use unalux lamps. And i will bring some info on Unalux prices, cost of new fixtures and some more things that should help change their minds. Is it alright if i use your comment as a source Jace? Also if they have to replace the older small watage ones like 175 and less i would recommend the FCO M-250A2 or R2 to them. Thanks
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My Cars:

1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi

	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #8 on: July 15, 2008, 11:29:13 PM » Author: TudorWhiz
Instead of using my comment source as they don't know me nor I am not an expert, I've learned stuff from others...so its not all from me.......also HPS retrofit for 175 watt merc exists and is the lowest watt for retrofit.....so I would go for retrofit HPS for 175 watt and up....
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #9 on: July 15, 2008, 11:48:16 PM » Author: GE M-400A1
Retrofit Chart 150 HPS = 175 MV 215 = 250 360 = 400 880 = 1000
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1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi

	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #10 on: July 16, 2008, 11:39:46 AM » Author: icefoglights
What is their motivation behind the ban?  Is it a DS issue, cause if so, banning MV/MH won't help.  They will just have orange sky glow instead of white.  It's the optics that are really the problem.
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #11 on: July 16, 2008, 02:58:23 PM » Author: GE M-400A1
I will bring a Philips MV/HPS lamp. The city wants to save some money and be GREEN.
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My Cars:

1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi

	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #12 on: July 16, 2008, 10:58:09 PM » Author: icefoglights
Saving money is all well and good.  It depends on how they do the conversion.  Back home, they converted a lot of old mercury vapor lights to high pressure sodium, i'd assume for the same reason.  The only problem is they replaced many 400 watt mercury lights with 400 watt sodium lights.  Not much savings going on there. In their defense though, there are some good reasons to use HPS in that area. I take it this ban only effects municipal lighting and not private?
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	Re: Mercury Bann « Reply #14 on: July 17, 2008, 01:05:40 AM » Author: GE M-400A1
Actually the ban will be on municipal but they want to be resedental and indoor lighting too. I will be pissed off if they tell me that i cant use a 100 W mercury in my powr/bracket outside. I hope we don't loose the metal halide to a stupid ban in the future. All as i can say is i will fight that bann for how ever long it takes! I will win! Our mayor is a misguided, unbalanced, dip stick who must have control over every thing even things he doesn't know anything about. including lighting.
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My Cars:

1986 Pontiac 6000 STE

1996 Chrysler Concorde LXi

1998 Chrysler Cirrus LXi