High bays, metal halide and led floodlights

High bays are basically used for illuminating target areas like hangars, warehouses, gymnasiums and other covered structures where the bottom of the light would be more than 20 feet from the floor. The high bay lights usually have a 15” – 18” reflector which concentrates the light on to the target area. The bulb used is usually a HID or a high intensity discharge bulb of high wattage to be able to produce the lpw required to illuminate the area. Manufactures have also started offering T5 high intensity illuminative lighting source using fluorescent sources. These are offered with the objective of high intensity yet low cost lighting solutions for warehouses and commercial establishments.

Metal halide floodlights are made of mercury vapor lamps mixed with certain other salts which improve the color and the intensity of the light. Metal halide comes under the HID or high intensity discharge family of lights and is thus compact, lightweight and produces more light than a fluorescent light of the same size and weight. Great amount of pressure and temperature is associated with the working of a metal halide lamp thus they require special handling. Since the lights are small, comparatively smaller reflectors are used inside to direct the light. For different applications different types of reflectors are used. The most widely used applications of metal halide floodlights are in the outdoor commercial lighting like in soccer and baseball fields. However there is a significant disadvantage in the case of a power failure as these lights are essentially warm lamps they don’t come to operating temperatures and thus don’t start emitting light at the brightest immediately on striking. There is a minimum 5 to 10 minutes of cooling period followed by another 5 minutes of warming time. Metal Halide bulbs have an arc inside which contains Argon gas inside. It requires a few initial seconds to ignite. During the warm up period the lamp will emit various light colors which will mean the metal halide is vaporizing inside. Thus most locations which use metal halide floodlights use a backup lighting system as well which is used in the intermittent time.

LED floodlights are a highly energy conserving source of lighting generally used for commercial applications. Compared to a more traditional HPS or mercury flood lights the LED lights are about 50% to 70% less energy consuming. If compared to a standard halogen light it consumes a phenomenal 80% less energy. Life span wise it is up to 5 times more and needs less maintenance during its working life span. They emit less pollution and are greatly eco-friendly. Their energy saving capacity is so high that in a recent study it was found that if every household in the United States uses at least one LED lamp it will reduce he energy requirements of the country by as much as $400 million and also reduce the green house gas emission by 5 billion pounds. These are numbers that are worth giving a thought.