Tonight I had gone to the Publix on other side of town. This Publix was an Albertsons store before Publix had moved in, and it used fluorescent strip lights that mounted to the bottom of the ceiling. Well, Publix has started to renovate the store and had taken down the signs of the walls and painted different colors. But I happened to notice the strip lighting has all been removed. They've been replaced with 2x2 square recessed lights, which I'm guessing are LED. They have a strange flat diffuser and the light doesn't look even. I haven't seen this lights in a Publix before. Our Publix on the other side of town has strip lighting which hangs, since it's a newer store with the open style ceilings. Before that store, the old one which was remodeled in the late 1990s used the 2x2 parabolic troffers which each contained a MH lamp. So these 2x2 fixtures remind me of that, but I liked the parabolic diffuser better than this new setup.

Oh, and the MH fixtures on the front of the Publix are still there and working properly. I think they had even relamped one since I was there a few week ago. Hopefully they will stay up.

Although, on new Publix stores, they use LED wallpacks that are FCO style. Since the new Publix built in 2017-2018 use LED, but the one closer to me built in 2016 still had MH FCO wall packs and parking lot lights.

I noticed that it seems installation of new HID stopped for good in 2016, at least around here in my area. There's a go karting place that was finished around then and it has metal halide lights in the parking lot and all fluorescent lights inside. It's crazy (and kind of sad) how fast HID and fluorescent are being wiped out.

I noticed that it seems installation of new HID stopped for good in 2016, at least around here in my area. There's a go karting place that was finished around then and it has metal halide lights in the parking lot and all fluorescent lights inside. It's crazy (and kind of sad) how fast HID and fluorescent are being wiped out.

Very true and that's one of the things I really don't like about LED. I mean, when HPS came out, sure it was more efficient and used more often as time went on, but they still made MV fixtures until the ban. When fluorescent lights came out they still made incandescent bulbs to this day. I would say in those cases one was considered more efficient so took prominence. But with LED, it's like a miracle cure that wants to not only become prominent, but utterly end every other technology in doing so. It's incredibly boring how they want everything homogenized. But that seems to be the modern idea, in other things too.

All I can say is at least I got interested in lighting, in time to be able to appreciate other technologies still being used and installed. If not I might not have noticed until it was too late.

Yeah, I'm really starting to loose interest in lighting with the way things are headed. It's kind of depressing to be honest.

Right now, what keeps me here is a "secret" project I have to make a new kind of HPS bulb, and also promoting my website.

Right now, what keeps me here is a "secret" project I have to make a new kind of HPS bulb,

What?

What?

I want to try to make a new HPS bulb that can be mass produced, so there's never a shortage of them. Also, it might use indium tin oxide to make it more efficient. Right now, I'm waiting until next month to get a quote on a die to make the arc tubes. I'm going to fill it with aluminum oxide and compress it with my hydraulic press, then heat it up with a torch to make the compressed powder transparent.

I want to try to make a new HPS bulb that can be mass produced, so there's never a shortage of them. Also, it might use indium tin oxide to make it more efficient. Right now, I'm waiting until next month to get a quote on a die to make the arc tubes. I'm going to fill it with aluminum oxide and compress it with my hydraulic press, then heat it up with a torch to make the compressed powder transparent.

Well, best of luck with that. It's a neat concept but at this point I don't think a resurrected older technology is going to be able to compete with LED. The same thing happened to ceramic/quartz pulse start metal halide. Also, what do you have for a hydraulic press? Is it one of those small ones you have to pump up by hand or is it a huge electric one?

Also, a little while back I discovered a material available that converts both UV and heat into visible light. The light it makes is a fluorescent greenish-white color, so it probably wouldn't have very good CRI. I was thinking I could try coating the inside of metal halide and mercury vapor lamps in it. If it all works out, in the end the result would possibly be a very efficient HID lamp but with low CRI. The material is designed for use in artwork, and it's called LIT.
Here's a link to the page for it. I'm not sure how long it would last or if it would work in my application, but I'd like to try it sometime.

Well, best of luck with that. It's a neat concept but at this point I don't think a resurrected older technology is going to be able to compete with LED. The same thing happened to ceramic/quartz pulse start metal halide. Also, what do you have for a hydraulic press? Is it one of those small ones you have to pump up by hand or is it a huge electric one?

Also, a little while back I discovered a material available that converts both UV and heat into visible light. The light it makes is a fluorescent greenish-white color, so it probably wouldn't have very good CRI. I was thinking I could try coating the inside of metal halide and mercury vapor lamps in it. If it all works out, in the end the result would possibly be a very efficient HID lamp but with low CRI. The material is designed for use in artwork, and it's called LIT.
Here's a link to the page for it. I'm not sure how long it would last or if it would work in my application, but I'd like to try it sometime.

I think it could compete against LED because:
-"Local manufacturing" is pretty marketable
-I would use some stuff called ITO (indium tin oxide) to maybe help the efficiency
-Clear sapphire could be used, to improve the efficiency even more
-A special mixture of krypton and xenon makes the bulb easier to start under high pressure.
Also, the hydraulic press is only 12 tons, but I tried crushing some aluminum oxide today and it turned slightly transparent, without heat!

I think that powder could work, but only if I can find out what it's made of.

Interesting thoughts WattMaster!  Hate to discourage you, but...
* Simple (and sad) fact is HID (especially anything like HPS that doesn't produce white light) is a dieing technology.
* Probably the majority of people don't care about 'local manufacturing', rather going for 'lowest cost'
* Mass production isn't something you're going to be able to do with simple hand-operated equipment in your garage, you'd need a fully automated assembly-line group of machines for it