Well I think the cheapest HID fixture is one of those tallpacks but most of them are HPS.

Yeah, this was only $12 though and just uses 13 watts (it runs dusk to dawn) so it was a bit more economical.

Yeah the HPS tallpacks are pretty expensive and even the lowest watt one still uses more than double this.

Plus they aren't the best quality, I think it would be nice to get one like this in PSMH, then I could put in a CMH lamp.

Yeah aluminium and glass beats the cheap and prone to yellowing plastic that they use on the box store tallpacks.

The premium tallpacks like this would also work pretty well too.

RAB is too overpriced for crap. My Utilitech 70w PMH wall light does perfect, I just use a coated and protected lamp and it works fine. I occasionally wash the refractor though. It's vented bottom and seems well built. $50 at Lowes. Cheaper than the $75 HPS wall packs you see at the box stores and better quality light.

That's actually a different RAB, a Canadian one (no I never did figure it why there are two) their lights actually seem to be pretty good quality, I think the one Joseph posted would actually be perfect for this spot. I have also looked a open bottom HPS light at Home Depot, but my concern was wasps getting in a making a nest (something I don't want to deal with).

Ugh, wasps I had to deal with them when I was taking down an old deck.

The 70w MH Utilitech fixtures aren't sold in Canada so he would have to go across the border to get one.

What's sold there?

IIRC at Lowe's:
70w HPS open bottom fixture,
150w HPS bucket light,
100w HPS mini wallpack,
70w HPS tallpack

Prior to early 2009 they also had:
100w MV open bottom,
175w MV yardlight

Lowes also sells a 150 watt HPS flood, that also might be good here.

Yeah although you might want to put your 35w ballast and lamp in, 150w HPS is even brighter than the streetlights here.

They don't sell MH lights? Lowe's has a huge selection here. I can't name them all off hand. They sell CFL products here as well. Floodlights too. They used to sell HID ballasts, but that was before I was into lighting. I think 175w MV ballasts, and 70 and 150 and 400w HPS ballasts (even though they have never sold 400w fixtures). I don't recall seeing MH or PMH ballasts. That was back in like 2008

A local Rona here sold Advance HID ballasts at one point, I snagged a few when they were clearing them out in early 2009. You can see the pics in my gear gallery.

Lowe's does sell CFL lights but I can't remember then off the top of my head and I believe only Home Depot sells MH lights.

Home Depot used to have a good selection of stuff too they used to sell a highbay, 400w MH lamps and according to Darren HID ballasts at one point.

Oh. HD sell MH too, but HD doesn't have as good of a selection of lighting as Lowe's does and Lowe's is cheaper and I think bette quality than HD.

A little update here - the lamp in this thing finally burnt out last night! It ran dusk to dawn for the last 21/2 years which is pretty good for a cheap CFL as far as I'm concerned. The lens is a bit yellow now, but it's not too bad. I wonder how long the new lamp will last?

(Dec. 31,2011) Well it's been close to 6 months since this was installed and so far everything is fine, I has been running dusk to dawn and there is no sign of any yellowing on the lens yet and the cheap no name lamp has held up fine, we will see how it does during the winter.

wow the original lamp lasted that long? that is good. some of the fixtures don't even make it that long. well depends what brand lamp you buy. If you buy a philips I'm sure it won't last long but a GE or Sylvania should last a good while.

Wow, I didn't expect a cheap and presumably no name CFL to last that long.