David never agreed for some reason.

I've noticed alot with Boston streetlights as well, they do alot of ballast replacements with existing fixtures, so it can be diceiving.

David......listen, sometimes ballasts are replaced but they don't change the sticker.....now this is an HPS...do not doubt the actual electricians who works with electricity. Do you have an electrical job? Some people who has commented has a job for electrical work, have experience, have electrical certificate. Do not doubt those people...unless you are an electrician or work with ballasts for a living or have a certificate.

I have a GE M-250R1 with a blue 10 NEMA tag...but the ballast itself is actually a 175 watt....so it could be a door replacement, or the sticker is wrong, or the linemen just mistakely thought it was a MV fixture and put a sticker in......

Antstar85 above, lives in Massachusetts too and works with streetlights and he knows.

BOTH websites agrees it is an HPS fixture....Everyone against you..David....you don't want to get in trouble again like you did in LG that got you kicked off for a year again

So listen to us. Thank you

Not trying to be a troublemaker, but maybe this'll clear things up. In June 2008, I found the refractor door for it on the ground. So this proves it was Mercury Vapor.

I give up.

David, the refractor door marking may have been wrong or was previous ballast......some electric companies changes the ballast.....for example there's some HPS Unistyle 400s in your area right? Well the Unistyle never came out in HPS...only MV, so the electric company changed the orginal ballast....it may be the same for this fixture, but they may have FORGOT to replace the NEMA tag.....get it? We know how to identify ballasts by looking at them...

Do YOU know how to identify by simply looking at them without any NEMA tags, labels, or even a MISSING ignitor???

David, your name is David right...if you had a name tag that said "Henry" does that prove your name is Henry? No it does not...same for the NEMA tag! Do you remember you found a NEMA tag that was yellow but had the word "MV"?? This PROVES even factory makes mistakes...so perhaps they intended to make this a MV fixture, but factory or the lineman mistakely put a HPS ballast.....this BALLAST is a HPS....but maybe it was SUPPOSED to be MV, but the ballast is an HPS period.

I've seen 100w HPS M-250R2s that have 250w HPS tags on them because the doors blew off last year.

I also know, NSTAR, Boston's electric company does not maintain they're respective streetlights. They could have some contractor with no experience sticking up a light and not checking to make sure it's a mv fixture. There could very well of been a packaging mix up at GE or somebody stuck an mv labeled door on an HPS light. I see it all the time at work. I have seen MV lamps work on a HPS ballast but the ignitor kills the lamp real quick probably the case with this fixture!

I've seen fixtures with conflicting tags before too, the nameplate on this Unidor says 400w while the NEMA tag says "20" on it.

I had a HPS PF-400 that I worked on that had a 25 sticker on IT. I relamped it twice in the Mater of two months because the lamp keep turning white and burning out. After the third time of relamping, I looked at the tag inside and the fixture was actually 400 watts. Since then the light has been problem free and that's why I now check the tag as well before relamping.

I've also seen fixtures without nema labels with the wrong lamps in them, my Westinghouse OV-15 didn't have a wattage label on the lower housing and the fixture is 250 watt MV but someone put a 175 watt MV lamp in it.

Yeah. I think NEMA tags should be stuck on the top housing (exept for power doors) because the doors can easily be changed.

Michael, if streetlights was stuck on top housing...how will linemen be able to determine what wattage it is from the ground?

I give up. Despite that I once saw this lit at night on Christmas 2005 when we went home from my grandmothers.

Like I said in a previous statement, I have seen MV lamps work on a HPS Ballast but the lamp tends to fail quickly because of the ignitor.

Whatever. I was just saying 'cause I've seen it lit once back in '05 while in my mother's car heading home from my grandmother's house on Christmas day. And I thought the refractor I found on the ground in '08 would've been enough evidence that it was Mercury Vapor, but whatever.

At Jace: Mount the label on the side of the top housing and you will see it just fine.

You know there's a chance that the MV ballast failed say in 2006 and was replaced with a GE HPS ballast which explains why you saw it in MV in 05.

Or they really did put a MV lamp in a HPS ballast, MV lamps do run for a short while on HPS ballasts even the 120v OCV ones.

It's a mystery we will never know!