High Pressure Sodium Lamps - Discharge Lamps

Our large range of high pressure sodium lamps are widely used for commercial lighting applications including floodlights and warehouse lighting. We have both the eliptical coated types and clear tubular high pressure sodium lamps.

High pressure sodium lamps can sometimes be a confusing product to buy so we have put together this handy guide to help with selecting the right lamp.

What are high pressure sodium lamps used for?

They are used widely in commercial applications including car park floodlighting, street lighting and high bay warehouse applications. These are popular lamps to use due to the warm golden glow and excellent lamp life usually around 24,000 hours.



Which shape?

Eliptical

These are bulbous shape lamps that have a white coating inside as shown by the image to the right.







Tubular

These are the longer straight tubular type with clear glass so you can see the element inside. See image to the right





Ignitors Explained

High pressure sodium lamps have a couple of options with regards to ignitors. The ignitor is the part the fires the lamp at start up. Some lamps have the ignitor built in and some have the ignitor in the light fitting itself.

So how do you tell the difference? The two images below will explain all.



Internal Ignitor

The lamps with an ignitor built into the lamp are often marked on the casing of the lamp with an 'I' inside a triangle. You will need to replace like for like and therefore purchase an internal ignitor sodium lamp.



External Ignitor

The lamps with no ignitor are usually marked on the outer casing of the lamp with a triangle containing a 'E'. These lamps have the ignitor built into the light fitting itself so you will need to purchase the external ignitor sodium lamps.



Who Makes High Pressure Sodium Lamps?

High pressure sodium lamps are made by a wide range of lamp manufacturers. We will only supply lamps from the top manufacturers. If you have a specific requirement for a manufacturers brand please let us know at the point of ordering otherwise we will supply whichever brand we have available on the shelf.

Below is a cross reference chart, just to make the whole process more confusing all of the main lamp manufacturers give different names to the high pressure sodium lamps they manufacture. All of these lamps are interchangable between manufacturers but you must always change like for like with regards to wattage and ignitor.

Manufacturer	Name
Osram	NAV or Vialox
GE	Lucalux
Sylvania	SHP
Venture	HPS
Philips	SON-E or SON-T

End Cap Types

There are two different endcap types available for the high pressure sodium lamps as indicated below, both are screw cap.



E27 Screw Cap

The E27 screw cap also know as an edison screw cap is 27mm in diameter as indicated by the image to the right.





E40 Screw Cap

The E40 screw cap also know as a giant edison screw cap is 40mm in diameter as indicated by the image on the right.