High Voltage Landscape Lighting

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There's a reason why Dallas, Texas is known as the moon-bright Mercury Vapor capital of the world. The "architect" who uses high-voltage lighting for residential lighting applications found the concept more than 50 years ago in Dallas, Texas.

Drive through virtually every affluent neighborhood in Dallas, Texas at night, such as Park Cities, Lakewood, or Preston Hollow, and you will see large amounts of mercury vapor being used for Dallas landscape lighting.

The light that emits high-voltage light emits a bluish-green hue and has been coined the term "moonlight", although in reality nothing is too close to a soft, soft moonlight effect at night. Some people think this kind of lamp makes everything look scary.

Travel through the same homes throughout the day in Dallas, Texas, and you'll find lawns littered with bulky electrical distribution boxes, unnatural electrical conduits, and beautiful native trees built with huge fixtures, tree-mounted boxes, J-boxes, and other unsightly power supplies were and components.

Owners of Dallas landscape lighting houses that have installed mercury vapor systems or high voltage systems on their property have recently encountered a difficult situation. The conventional mercury vapor ballasts required to operate mercury vapor lamps are no longer manufactured.

The US Congress passed and President Bush signed the 2005 Energy Policy Act prohibiting the manufacture or sale of high voltage lighting ballasts on January 1, 2008. Mercury Vapor is being phased out for environmental reasons and to promote energy efficiency.

High-voltage lamps lose over 50% efficiency within 5 years (a measure of how many lumens a lamp produces per watt consumed). In fact, mercury vapor technology is over half a century old and has the worst lamp efficiency compared to any other light source. So it was only a matter of time before this dinosaur was banned from lighting.

What challenges does this new law pose for homeowners operating this type of landscape lighting system in Dallas, Texas?

In a nutshell,

Once the life of your mercury ballast has expired, you will not be able to replace it.

So, what are my options that you can ask?

Be careful when your lighting expert / electrician tells you that you can easily replace a luminaire: the fact is: mercury vapor or high voltage lamps are manufactured for use with mercury vapor ballasts only.

Some will tell you that there is a comparable metal halide lamp. Compare with what? Metal halide is nothing more than a street lamp. Do you want a street lamp on your lawn or in your tree? A street lamp is a street lamp, no matter how you compare it, even if you park cars on your lawn.

A metal halide lamp does not work with mercury vapor ballasts. Someone may recommend replacing the mercury vapor ballasts with metal halide ballasts. What they are not telling you is that dual-power ballasts that perform dual applications for metal halide and mercury vapor are being changed so that mercury vapor is no longer listed for use with these products. Using a high voltage lamp with ballasts that are not listed for use with mercury vapor lamps violates the UL Listing and invalidates all warranties.

Inevitably, all mercury vapor or high voltage systems used for Dallas landscape lighting systems and in the US will be discontinued because mercury vapor ballasts will fail.

In reality, homeowners in Dallas who use mercury vapor type landscape lighting systems have few real solutions to replace their mercury vapor system.

1. Replace mercury vapor lamps, fixtures and ballasts with metal halide lamps, fittings and ballasts.

advantages : fast solution, more efficient than mercury vapor, ideal for parking, hunting
disadvantage : Costly installation, costly operation, bulky high voltage electrical junction boxes, unnatural electrical conduits, and beautiful native trees that are outfitted with huge fixtures, tree mounting boxes, J boxes, and other unsightly power supplies and components. No flexibility for changes in the landscape floodlight

2. Completely drain the High Voltage (HV) system and replace it with an energy efficient low voltage / LED solution.

advantages Eliminate all unsightly wounds (bulky electrical junction boxes, unnatural electrical piping, and beautiful native trees planted with giant fixtures, tree-mount boxes, J-boxes, and other nasty power supplies and components). Inexpensive, very energy efficient & environmentally friendly, blends into the landscape, very flexible, if the landscape changes over time, adapted to the effect, using different lights, lamp specifications, professional lighting techniques and designs, 10 year warranty