Hello—

I have someone who purchased one of my Chinese Philips H39KB-175/DXs. Asking about what lamp would be best for their yard light (asking me if I could send him whatever variant would work best). From what he described, the light is on the front of his house nearby the front door.

Should I send a coated or clear bulb? If clear, I plan to send an ED-28 H39KB-175 and if coated I have the choice between a US-made (2002) and Chinese-made (2012) lamp. What do you guys think?

Back in the day, yardblasters, which were usually expected to be mounted higher up, were supplied with clear lamps.  Tallpacks, and smaller fixtures that maybe located lower and closer to a door, were supplied with coated/DX lamps.

I'd go with DX for the improved color rendition in the event the customer doesn't have an obvious preference for clear, especially for a light being used in the front of a house.

@icefoglights , @Patrick — Good to know, I will do just that. Thank you!

I bought a few residential grade MV fixtures new and most of them were supplied with clear lamps. The only one I have that came with a /DX lamp was the ICI-Lite Nite.

Anyway, since my MV fixture was mounted next to a window, shortly after installing it I switched the clear lamp it came with a /DX, so /DX would probably look better for most people.

@joseph_125 — did it come with a lamp like this? 

 /DX definitely ! I noticed that clear attracts a zillion more bugs than /DX . Since the light in question is by a door , that might be a bad thing !

 Also , I donated a clear 175w to the neighbor for his lard light and he HATED it !! Didn't like the bluish color one bit !

@Maxim - Very similar, I have the smaller 80w version though and I also got a couple of the replacement lamps for it.

@wide-lite 1000 - I've noticed the same thing as well. My 100w MV is mounted next to the door so I switched it with a /DX. Might end up switching the fixture to something like 3000K CMH or HPS in the future.