AWESOME! This grocery store screams of 1960s! Wooden paneling on the walls. Wooden laminate on the double doors in the back. (None of that boring crappy gray we have today.) And lets not forget the MV lights! Place was awesome! Wish I could explore it further. Including the back areas. Wonder if they would give a tour of the place since it's a historic store...
This is the exact same store, and almost exact same angle as this pic You also can see some of the MV fixtures have been relamped recently also yes I took FGS there if you were wondering..
Oh, boy... Those two Neanderthals? Okay. So I saw two guys trying to fix a quad 4x2 troffer fixture over the registers. I decided to ask if they had any old MV lamps. They said they're on aisle whatever and one said to follow him. I said I was asking for OLD MERCURY VAPOR lamps, not CFLs or incandescent new lamps. So he took me to another dude who's supposedly the manager of the store. I told this manager that I collected old MV lamps as a hobby. He said he didn't have any old lamps. I then gave up on the quest for MV lamps. Too much of a headache dealing with the three stooges.
We looked around the store for a while longer. Saw the wooden laminated doors in the back. Seen some of the old fridges and shelves. Very cool! The ice freezer had incandescent under the "ice" logo on top. Went to the bathroom downstairs. I had to go thru the meat dept to reach the stairs. There were a few 8' T12s in turret mount fixtures. Not the boring old strips. The industrial sort. The basement looked kinda cool to look at. I kinda wished I got "lost" looking for the bathroom. Oh, well...
After 30+ minutes exploring the place and a small part of the basement leading to the bathroom. The two schmucks were still at the SAME fixture. I saw that two of the lamps had blackened ends. (Very much dead.) I or the Gull would have fixed it in 5 minutes flat or found out the ballast was dead. I doubt it would take 30 minutes or more to even replace the whole fixture! I seriously hope these guys won't burn down this cool store. Would be a shame to lose such a historic place. I suspect those two sweeps the store and take out the garbage that got way over their head. (PLEASE spare us the light bulb jokes! )
How many store clerks does it take to change...oh nevermind. As a teenager working in grocery, I remember how other young employees loved to either joust with fluorescent lamps or throw them in the incinerator. Mercury vapor...harmful? Nah...
This is a cool store. It's rare to find any retail store lit with HID now...T12's were converted to T8's and HID's converted to T8 or T5HO troffers, or sometimes CFL highbays.
Wow, it looks clear in the pic. However, it would look strange that way. Any idea as to shape/brand of the bulbs?
I wonder if these ever had /C or /N lamps in them.
I'd love to be the one to turn these on in the morning too. Looks like they'd be in trouble if the power dipped for a second. The store with these fixtures near me also has 2X4 fluorescent troffers that probably serve as a backup in case the HIDs restike in a power failure. I've noticed the fluoros aren't maintained though. They're probably still T12 too since either the two outer lamps seem to be wired in series and the middle lamp on a separate ballast. The benefit of these recessed high bays is that the suspended ceiling traps almost all of the noise from the ballasts. i love these circle lights. More than the HID troffers, though those are pretty cool too.
I think the recessed HID lights also have to use either potted or F can ballasts which are quieter as most core and coil aren't rated for recessed use. The drop ceiling also traps the remaining noise too.
Fuses can be added pretty easily though. Street lights have the option of having a fuse in series with the ballast. F-Can HID ballasts are VERY expensive too!
yeah and the pulse start MH F-can ballasts probably don't even have a cutout ignitor meaning if a dead lamp sits too long the ignitor probably goes bad making the whole thing useless
Yeah i think so... They should also be sound rated too (sound rating means nothing to me since some class A sound rated ballasts are noisey while some are class D and they're nearly silent. Now a days i think all ballasts are class A sound rated.)
Yeah I find the sound rating doesn't really help as I've had new class A ballasts sound like a hornet's nest. Anyway most 4' and shorter ballasts are rated class A or B, and most SL and HO ballasts are rated class C or D. I believe open core chokes don't have a sound rating.
Yeah, my Universal Therm-O-Matic 2xF40T12 sounds like an old mercury vapor yard light at first until it warms up. But most of my other ballasts are pretty quiet except for my circline adapters (BTW I got a lampless LOA 22w one yesterday!)
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We looked around the store for a while longer. Saw the wooden laminated doors in the back. Seen some of the old fridges and shelves. Very cool! The ice freezer had incandescent under the "ice" logo on top. Went to the bathroom downstairs. I had to go thru the meat dept to reach the stairs. There were a few 8' T12s in turret mount fixtures. Not the boring old strips. The industrial sort. The basement looked kinda cool to look at. I kinda wished I got "lost" looking for the bathroom. Oh, well...
After 30+ minutes exploring the place and a small part of the basement leading to the bathroom. The two schmucks were still at the SAME fixture. I saw that two of the lamps had blackened ends. (Very much dead.) I or the Gull would have fixed it in 5 minutes flat or found out the ballast was dead. I doubt it would take 30 minutes or more to even replace the whole fixture! I seriously hope these guys won't burn down this cool store. Would be a shame to lose such a historic place. I suspect those two sweeps the store and take out the garbage that got way over their head. (PLEASE spare us the light bulb jokes!
This is a cool store. It's rare to find any retail store lit with HID now...T12's were converted to T8's and HID's converted to T8 or T5HO troffers, or sometimes CFL highbays.
Is this clear MV or coated? If so which phosphor type?
I wonder if these ever had /C or /N lamps in them.
and this is just too awesome this grocery store uses MVs inside! i have not seen that here before