I never knew Philips made Cosmo lamp ballasts for the North American market. Cool.

Does this lamp have a CRI of only 60 ?

I thought that the cosmo MH lamp don't have thallium based on its spectrum at Philips website. I think that the lanterns at the parking lot near Stop Market Qerayot, are cosmopolis.

This 140w version is listed as 62 CRI. The 90w version is slightly higher. And I forgot to check restrike time.

I'm a bit surprised at the low CRI. The ones I have seen in Europe seemed to have fairly good CRI, but then I didn't spend a whole lot of time under them before going to other places that were lit with other sources. They definitely have a better colour rendering than even /DX mercury, however.

This lamp seems to start-up exactly like an HPS lamp, with the mercury starter/buffer dominating the spectrum. The sodium eventually takes over and the thallium green line becomes obvious at about the same time. I was expecting much more radiation from rare earths, but it is likely they add just a trace. HPS lamps have a CRI of 24? This lamp is decidely warm (at 2800K, it should be), so a CRI of 62 is just a few points from good CFL or fluorecsent lamps.

All MH lamps starts with the mercury dominating the spectrum after overtakes the light from the incandescent electrodes before the halides before the halides starts radiates. I think that the halides chemistry is sodium-thallium-cerium.

@ sol - the CRI of Cosmo lamps is indeed that low and this comes particularly from the lack of red emission in the lamp spectrum (which is not as bad as in standard HPMV lamps though). This deficiency is not evident to spot in its natural lighting environment (i.e. outdoor/street lighting), especially when there's no other prominent light sources around, but it becomes very apparent when used indoors for lighting e.g. a living room. Skin and any red-colored objects really take on a dull appearance under Cosmo's light.
Years ago I tried to use use a Cosmo lamp in my uplighter (because of the very high lumen efficacy of this particular source) but the lack of red output was really a big problem for lighting people. I even pushed the lamp power to 150% level in order to broaden its emission spectrum into the red end. The CRI did increase to some extent, but still not high enough for its application.

@light*plus:
"I was expecting much more radiation from rare earths" - that comes from the higher sodium/rare earth ratio and the lower discharge power load (i.e. leading to a lower plasma temperature) in the Cosmo burners compared to most other CMH lamps.

"a CRI of 62 is just a few points from good CFL or fluorescent lamps" - it's more that just a few CRI points... good CFL and linear fluo lamps have a CRI around 80 Ra8!

@Max : That explains it. There were no other sources close enough to compare. Merci beaucoup !

de rien

Why not offer an input voltage of 120 if it is for the American Market?
How does the chemistry differ from a standard metal halide lamp? Does adding sodium make it "warm white"?

@ Max - I too noticed the deficiency in reds when I used one to light a room. The colour was much nicer than mercury but similar to mercury the room would take on a green cast - it was just a warmer green cast than merc!

Apparently a discussion of the light colour of CosmoWhite must differentiate between the individual types. The current data sheet for the "classic" CosmoWhite (i.e. PGZ12 rather than E27/E40) gives it as 628 only for the 45 watts version anymore. 60, 90, 140 watts are either 728 or 840 now.

If it's just for the European market why have it be capable of the American voltages of 208 and 277?

I've never seen a Philips Advance ballast for the european market. it is for 208-277V 50-60hz and have european standard approvals (RoHS Compliant) and no any american standard approval.
Philips markets dedicated european Primavision and Dynavision ballasts for the european market, so there are no reasons to export the Philips Advance ballasts to the european market as well.