Metal Halide High Bay lighting,what is pulse and non pulse ? Do I have to change the ballast to non pulse if I want to screw in a 200watt compact fluorescent?

You cannot use a screw-in CFL in anything but an incandescent lamp socket. It will not work properly in a metal halide fixture that contains any type of ballast.

That's not true! We use Lights of America Fluorescent 65watt lamps in 175watt Mercury Vapor fixtures all the time with no problems.
I was wanting to know the reason why I can not use a CFL in a metal Halide fixture.Not just be told "no you can't do it"

David.

Sorry. I did not see "why" in your first question.

HID ballasts are auto-transformers, which take the line voltage, and raise the voltage to the lamp at specific levels for each size lamp. A ballast will also limit the current o a lamp.

Thew best illustration of that is shown on page 38-39 of the following booklet that is too large to import directly here, so I provided the link to it:
http://www.advancetransformer.com/uploads/resources/hid-troubleshooting-guide.pdf

As you can see, the open circuit voltages are very high, too high for what I thought was a screw in CFL lamp rated for 120 volts.


I looked at LOA website and was unable to find a CFL specifically designed as a retrofit replacement for a 175 MV fixture.

I did find a 65 watt CFL here:
Yardlight Product Category Page (http://www.lightsofamerica.com/yardlights.htm#)

Can you provide a part number for the lamp being used?

I found a LOA mogul base 65 watt CFL lamp:
EFI's Online Store for Lights of America | LOA 65w Fluorex™ Quad (http://www.energyfederation.org/loa/default.php/cPath/25_173_727_481)

States that it is only for their fixture with the specifically designed ballast for this lamp, and cannot be screwed into a 120 volt socket, only the fixture that has the ballasts for it.

Perhaps you have come across a fluke that this LOA 65 watt lamp works in the 175 MV ballast. It certainly is not published as such. Does the lamp last the rated hours? Odd they do not publish the rated hours for this lamp.

If the 175 MV ballast is working the lamp, I bet LOA would like to know that, as they would find another untouched market for their lamp.