High Pressure Sodium Lamps

Common uses and advantages

High pressure sodium lamps are used in outdoor lighting of streets and parking lots and in indoor settings where color rendering is not critical. These indoor settings include warehouse and shipping areas and some manufacturing areas.

Other options to consider

Rarely will an application using high pressure sodium lamps be a candidate for a change to another light source.

High efficiency lamps are available and delamping may be a possiblity if an area is overlit.

All lamps should be switched off when not in use but HID lamps are commonly left on for long periods of time. They warm up slowly to full brightness over a period of 10 or 15 minutes. To address the energy waste in this practice a two-level ballast is available for high pressure sodium lamps. Occupancy sensors control the switching and when an area is vacant the lamps drop to about 30% of the power used at full brightness. From this starting point the lamps can come up to full brightness in less than a minute.

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