Evaluation of System Energy Savings of Ceramic Metal Halide Lamps Suitable for Probe-Start and Pulse-Start Systems

Abstract

Energy saving ceramic discharge metal halide lamps (CDM) have been developed to start and operate on magnetic probe and pulse start ballasts originally designed for quartz metal halide (QMH) lamps. The energy saving performance of these retrofit CDM lamps has been evaluated on several types of commercial magnetic ballast systems including constant wattage auto-transformers (CWA), reactors, and magnetic regulated lag (mag-reg) types. System evaluations result in linear models that depend on ballast type and lamp power. These models, which show excellent agreement with measurements, are used in Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the relative power savings that can be expected when replacing an installation of QMH lamps having a range of electrical characteristics, with the energy saving CDM retrofit lamps. The system evaluations show that the CDM lamps save 18 percent lamp power and an average system power savings of up to 17 percent.