An old design M400 is a great streetlight to have, but good luck getting an original design M400. They don't show up on eBay very often compared to the new design, so you may have better luck looking locally.

Additionally you could look for a ITT 25, 23, or 13, if you don't have any of those.

@Lightingeye60, note that the statement you said generally applies to the USA in particular. Me and Baked Bagel 11 did specifically state that other countries still embraced mercury vapor lighting long after the USA phased them out after 2008.

Guessing those decorative post tops are acorns. Those are usually what is found in MH for post tops. The four-sided colonial lanterns aren’t very common in MH.

Yes, Holophane Washingtons and some Hadco stuff sprinkled in.

@Lcubed3
Assuming it still draws 2.1A from the line (which may or may not be the case with a different lamp in it) then the lamp is likely underdriven, as S55 150W HPS lamps run at 3.2A. 2.1A is for S54 100W HPS lamps. Though maybe the current has changed.

Ah yes, I forgot about that. I've been running a 150W HPS lamp in it for some time now, and it does not appear to be underdriven.

Most major manufacturers made fixtures in MV until 2008. This included post tops, NEMA heads, cobra heads, and residential “yardblaster” lights. Interestingly enough, in 2000-2007, mercury vapor fixtures were still more commonly installed for street and area lighting than metal halide or PSMH fixtures (for NEMA heads, cobra heads, and coach style post tops). They didn’t make MH NEMA’s until after the ban.

In the 2000s, if cities didn't like the orange color of HPS or they were trying to much the glow of older street lights during spot replacements, they just kept using mercury vapor, and after the ban, they just went with HPS anyways though some did use metal halide. Metal halide was never a common source for street lighting in the U.S. (outside of decorative acorns and teardrops), likely due to their shorter lifespans and the risk of exploding in open bottom fixtures. Flood lights may also have been more commonly installed in MH than other street light fixtures.

Some people just assume mercury vapor fixtures were discontinued in the 1980s or 90s, but this isn’t actually true and they were readily available (the bulbs, the ballasts, and all associated parts were available at that time). I’ve seen several later install mercury vapor fixtures (90s and 2000s) in my life (including Cooper OVX, OVZ, 113, 115, 125, GE 201SA, American Electric Series 11, Cooper RMA, GE M250R2, GE M250A2, GE M400, GE TC-100, AEL 247, Cooper UTR Traditionaire). Mercury vapor lights were still made well after HPS became standard.

CMH is probably the rarest street light source there is (even induction street lights are more common).

By now i have 3 Iwasaki H50 lamps.

I bought them from CP lighting after a tip from someone. They had 50 in stock for something like 5 pounds a piece. I bought 4 - 1 for work, 3 for me - and then posted the link here. Within 2 days, their stock was gone lol.

They do NOT have them anymore.

I now also have a 400w medium pressure MV lamp, given to me by a friend.

From my experience, if you specifically want a clear 80W mercury vapor lamp, Japan is the best place to look as Japanese 80W mercury vapor lamps have nearly identical electrical characteristics as European 80W lamps and have noticed them popping up on Yahoo Japan Auction and Mercari from time to time. I have used proxy shopping services to import them successfully with trial and error since some proxy shopping services have a tendency to reject HID lamps sometimes.

Over in Japan, I recall seeing evidence that mercury vapor lighting has been the dominant source of HID lighting there until 2020 when new lamps were banned in the country, but mercury vapor ballasts, high pressure sodium retrofit lamps, quartz metal halide retrofit lamps, and ceramic metal halide retrofit lamps have continued to be sold there until early 2025 when Iwasaki discontinued all HID lamps. So far, as a US resident, I have never had problems with importing mercury vapor lamps and ballasts from Japan if they happened to be successfully exported out of the country.

A2 made in 2015. Though I am trying to get only vintage luminaires, and this A2 is 480 volts.