@Andy, it was only a 250w MH ballast, I've yet to find a 400w MH ballast locally for a good price.
@Mike and Andy, I actually bought a new cap for it but to use it I have to open up the ballast (because it's potted) to either bypass or to replace the cap. CWA MV ballasts have the cap in series to the lamp output so finding the correct wire should be pretty easy though.
@ Andy, you mean 250W in MH? I guess it may be the least common out of 175, 400, and 1000W... My wallpack uses 250W MH or MV lamps. 400W MH is definetly themost common though; it was almost always used for parking lot and highbay/lowbay lighting before the ban. Now i see 320W PSMH is pretty common for the few HID bay lights still installed today, though here 6-lamp T8 and T5 fluorescents are the main trend here for new installatiosn as well as formerly HID installations. I did notice that Lowe's and HD have left their HID highbays in their gardening section alone, which is nice to see, especially since standard output T5s and T8s won't do much good outside in the cold.
I know 250W MV was never used here (or at least not from what i can tell). only 100, 175, 400, and 1000. 1000W was only for floodlights and cobraheads in the downtown area. That's probably why 150W streetlights are unheard of here. just 50, 100, 250, and 400.
no 100W MV isn't dim as long as they're used every pole. 50W HPS is definetly too dim IMO for streetlighting. 70W shoud be the lowest used IMO. Is there a minimum amount of lumens that can be used for streetlighting on certain roads?
I don't know but IMO 70w HPS is BRIGHT for residential security lighting...to me HPS seems much brighter and more glary than MV, but MH is the most glary of them all....
Well, remember that glare doesn't at all mean brighter. It actually means the opposite. If your eye catches the glare, it'll adjust to that intense light and you won't see anything alse becuase of all that glare. It's like trying to read the NEMA tag on a streetlight a few hours after sunset. You can't do it unless you block the lamp/refractor itself from view with your hand. 70W HPS is not all that bright for residential area lighting. It's about right for an average sized yard. I think 150W HPS is way too bright for a yard unless you live on a 5 acre farm or something. For streetlighting, i think 100W HPS is just about right.
100 watt HPS does make sense for most residential streets since the output of a 100 watt HPS street light is 9,500 lumens. 70 watt HPS street lights are okay for some streets depending on the area and the traffic.
There's some 70w HPS streetlights here and they bright enough for smaller residential streets. It's probably a tad too bright for suburban yard lights though.
@Mike and Andy, I actually bought a new cap for it but to use it I have to open up the ballast (because it's potted) to either bypass or to replace the cap. CWA MV ballasts have the cap in series to the lamp output so finding the correct wire should be pretty easy though.