
What’s The Difference Between A Metal Halide Light And A Mercury Vapor Light? A metal halide light is made up of a metal and a halogen gas. A mercury vapor light is made up of a mercury and a vapor of hydrogen gas.
What is the most common metal halide?
Most of the times, the metal halides are compounds containing bromine and iodine as the halide component. Moreover, the most common compound is sodium iodide. These lamps are similar to mercury vapor lamps in several ways, but these lamps contain more gaseous components along with mercury vapor.
Can I use a metal halide ballast with a mercury vapor lamp?
Sometimes metal halide ballast kits will list like M90 and H38 on it's label, if it was designed run both 100W metal halide and 100W mercury vapor lamps, but not always. They do not manufacture "mercury vapor" ballasts anymore, so you would use a metal halide ballast and MH or MV lamp.
What is a metal halide lamp or multi vapor lamp?
A metal halide lamp or a multi vapor lamp contains a mixture of several gaseous components including mercury and some metal halides. Let us discuss more details on these lamps and see if there is any difference between metal halide and multi vapor lamps.
What is metal halide lighting?
Metal halide or multi vapor lamps are a form of the light source that creates light via passing an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of mercury vapor and vapor of some metal halides. 1. “Metal Halide Lighting.” Alabama Power.

Are metal halide and mercury vapor bulbs interchangeable?
Through research I have found that mercury vapor bulbs can be used in metal halide fixtures but a metal halide bulb cannot be used in a mercury vapor fixture.
Is metal halide mercury?
With a metal halide lamp, that mix of gases will normally include mercury, xenon or argon, and a variety of metal halides. Metal halides are produced as a result of combining halogen with a metal. In metal halide lamps, that is normally metals that have been mixed with iodine or bromine.
What type of lamp is mercury vapor?
The lamps can be constructed to emit primarily in the UV-A (around 400 nm) or UV-C (around 250 nm). High-pressure mercury-vapor lamps are commonly used for general lighting purposes....Emission line spectrum.Wavelength (nm)Name (see photoresist)Color435.8G-lineblue546.1green578.2yellow-orange650.5red4 more rows
What is meant by metal halide?
Metal halides are compounds formed when metal and halogen elements combine. They include things like sodium chloride (salt) and uranium hexafluoride (the fuel used in nuclear energy reactors). Metal halide lamps produce light by passing an electric current through a combination of mercury and metal halide gas.
Do metal halide bulbs explode?
Metal halide (MH) lamps can explode (typically referred to as sudden nonpassive failure) because they operate at high pressures, but some products are manufactured with safety features to prevent injury.
Is a mercury vapor lamp a HID?
A mercury vapor lamp is a type of high intensity discharge (HID) lamp that is typically used for commercial and outdoor lighting. It was the original metal vapor style of light fixture to be mass produced for general purpose lighting.
What can replace a mercury vapor bulb?
Light-Emitting Diode (LED)As mercury vapor lamps burn out, the most common replacement has been in the form of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lights.
Can you put a LED bulb in a mercury vapor fixture?
Retrofit is a direct replacement of the conventional halogen or high pressure sodium bulbs with LED lamps. After the replacement of 175W mercury vapor lamps with LED, you can enjoy 80,000 hours life span and flicker free illumination.
What is a main disadvantage of mercury Vapour lamps?
The main drawbacks of high-pressure mercury vapour lamps are their slow 4-7 minute warm-up time, middling energy efficiency (about 50 lumens per watt), and inferior colour rendering compared to metal halide lamps.
What is the gas in a metal-halide lamp?
Metal halide (MH) lamps consist of an arc tube (also called a discharge tube or "burner") within an outer envelope, or bulb. The arc tube may be made of either quartz or ceramic and contains a starting gas (usually argon), mercury, and MH salts.
What type of bulb is metal halide?
high-intensity dischargeA metal-halide lamp is an electric light that produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halides[1][2] (compounds of metals with bromine or iodine). It is a type of high-intensity discharge (HID) gas discharge lamp.
Can you use a LED bulb in a metal halide fixture?
A 400 watt metal halide bulb can be replaced with a 200 watt LED. A 100 watt metal halide can be replaced with a 50 watt LED. Implementing an LED replacement program should result in a 50% reduction in annual energy use (kWh) costs.
What is halide used for?
Uses. Metal halides are used in high-intensity discharge lamps called metal halide lamps, such as those used in modern street lights. These are more energy-efficient than mercury-vapor lamps, and have much better colour rendition than orange high-pressure sodium lamps.
What are metal halide bulbs used for?
Uses. Metal-halide lamps are used for general lighting purposes both indoors and outdoors, such as commercial, industrial, and public spaces, parking lots, sports arenas, factories, and retail stores, as well as residential security lighting; automotive and specialty applications are further fields of usage.
What elements form Polymeride halides?
Explanation of polymeric halides The elements like Be, Ga, and Al form polymeric halides. The properties of these halides are intermediate between ionic and covalent halides.
Which metal halide is insoluble in water?
AgIMetal halide which is insoluble in water is AgI. The solubility of silver halides in water decreases from AgF to AgI.
What is the code for mercury vapor?
H33, H38 are mercury vapor codes with H, M135, M47 are metal halide ANSI with M and HPS ANSI codes have an S, like S55 or S50. Sometimes metal halide ballast kits will list like M90 and H38 on it's label, if it was designed run both 100W metal halide and 100W mercury vapor lamps, but not always.
Does Mercury vapour ballast have starters?
Almost none of the Mercury vapour ballast I have ran into do not have igniters or starters on them due they are probe start by design and now with other thing with Metal Halide probe start it can use the MV ballast as long it can meet the ANSI specs.
Can you switch over to PSMH ballast?
Really if you really want to get the best performace on MH bulbs you may have to switch over to Pulse start Metal Halide bulbs with PSMH ballast then it will match with each other and nice thing with PSMH's they can start better in cold weather than probe starters and they are brighter as well.
What is the Difference Between Metal Halide and Multi Vapor?
There is no difference between metal halide and multi vapor lamps because both names describe the same form of lamp.
What is a metal halide lamp?
Metal halide lamps are a form of the light source that creates light via passing an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of mercury vapor and vapor of some metal halides. Most of the times, the metal halides are compounds containing bromine and iodine as the halide component.
Can MV and MH be interchangeable?
Interchangeable can be done between the MV and MH { probe start only } but in warm and hot day it will have no issue to get it lit up but in cold days that where it show up.
Does a multi vapor lamp work in MV?
The "multi vapor" lamps that GE is selling are meant as universal donors with HPS, not MV, but mainly it is just a "marketing term" for GE's latest and greatest MH improvement. They can be used in virtually any burning position and fixture design, but it is definitely a pulse start lamp, so it ill NOT work in MV fixtures..
Can you use mercury vapor bulbs in a mercury vapor fixture?
Through research I have found that mercury vapor bulbs can be used in metal halide fixtures but a metal halide bulb cannot be used in a mercury vapor fixture. Co-worker says that's hog wash and knows a number of electricians that use MH bulbs in a MV fixture with supposedly good results.
