These can be considered rare now because they are no longer made. They're still on GE's catalog, but if you try to order one, they will tell you the only make HPS HID street lights now because of low demand for PSMH. They want to focus more on LEDs.
Hmm, interesting that they would keep it on the catalogue but tell you to order a HPS or LED light instead. Seems like cities that need fixtures for spot replacements might have to reballast fixtures themselves.
@ Joe: They had released a notice saying that they'd be discontinuing a number of HID fixtures as well as most non-LED fixtures, with the exception of a number of HPS fixtures they deemed to still have a popular demand. The M-400R2/A2 fixtures unfortunately did not make that cut. All their induction products were discontinued too. AEL and Cooper still make PSMH products, so hope is not lost for places using PSMH, unless they're religious PSMH people. GE never made their own PSMH ballasts anyway AFAIK. I think by the time PSMH had a chance to make it big, GE knew LEDs were promising and probably decided against investing heavily in it to allow them to stay ahead of the curve in LEDs. Though ironically it seems GE LEDs aren't all that common, at least not around here. Seems most placed use Cree LEDs and a number of other small manufacturers. I don't see too much from the "big guys" of HID lighting.
@Mike, ahh I thought they would be discontinuing less popular fixtures like the M-400R2/A2 and the unlisted fixtures like the Crimefighters but I didn't know that the HID fixtures still made would only be offered in HPS. Come to think of it, when GE relisted the M-400R2/A2, the ordering chart only showed it available in HPS.
The most popular brand of LED here in Philips or one of their subbrands...don't think there are GEs but there are some from smaller companies that makes only LED. Hmm, yeah I heard that GE just used off the shelf ballasts for PSMH instead of their own. I guess GE knew by then that once LED became popular people would stop using HID.
I don't think all PSMH was wiped out of GE. I think their parking lot lights and post top lights and other decorative fixtures might be PSMH if there's a demand for them but I don't think there was ever enough of a demand for PSMH utility-grade fixtures.
Ahh, yeah I would imagine PSMH would be a lot more popular for parking lot shoeboxes and post tops than HPS. Kinda sucks that GE dosen't make PSMH cobraheads for uses where white light would be desired like on some bridges and downtown shopping districts but I guess there's always Cooper and AEL or those repro teardrops.
It's a shame too, since I've heard Cooper and AEL's 1000W products are not the best. I wish the M-1000 was still around today. If they had never discontinued the M-1000, I wonder if they would have designed a new fixture or redesigned the M-1000 like they did with the step-door design. I'd like to get my hands on a non-step door M-1000.
We have MH 327's in our system in the downtown Springfield area. I think I can find maybe 2 M-1000 left in service but they are the step door versions and are HPS.
The only 1000W street lights ever used were were MVs, and they're very limited. Pretty much all the 1000W MV street lights were replaced with M-400 split doors, M-400R2s, 125s, or 25s in the 80s or 90s. I knew of one but it recently got replaced with a newer M-400 (I was surprised, since they've been using OVXs, but I think it was just an old stock sitting around for awhile since the NEMA tag was pre-2015, and they've been using Coopers for 250 and 400W HPS since 2012 here. There are a number of big 1000W MV GE flood lights around here. I call those things TVs since they're big like a living room CRT television. You can literally fit a small cobrahead inside them! This particular one had been dayburning from about 2014 and recently stopped, and I doubt it got a new PC. Lamp probably died. You can see how dim and green it is in the pic. The 113 is 50W HPS and was likely installed around 1992-1994 to replace a 120V incandescent. The mast arm is a 1-1/4" galvanized steel, something that seems to have been used a lot in the early-mid-90s to replace the shorter 4ft incandescent arms and the rotted steel arms. Aluminum arms are much more common here. I want to find a nice 6ft tapered elliptical arm but it's hard to get the longer 4ft+ arms.
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@ Joe: They had released a notice saying that they'd be discontinuing a number of HID fixtures as well as most non-LED fixtures, with the exception of a number of HPS fixtures they deemed to still have a popular demand. The M-400R2/A2 fixtures unfortunately did not make that cut. All their induction products were discontinued too. AEL and Cooper still make PSMH products, so hope is not lost for places using PSMH, unless they're religious PSMH people. GE never made their own PSMH ballasts anyway AFAIK. I think by the time PSMH had a chance to make it big, GE knew LEDs were promising and probably decided against investing heavily in it to allow them to stay ahead of the curve in LEDs. Though ironically it seems GE LEDs aren't all that common, at least not around here. Seems most placed use Cree LEDs and a number of other small manufacturers. I don't see too much from the "big guys" of HID lighting.
The most popular brand of LED here in Philips or one of their subbrands...don't think there are GEs but there are some from smaller companies that makes only LED. Hmm, yeah I heard that GE just used off the shelf ballasts for PSMH instead of their own. I guess GE knew by then that once LED became popular people would stop using HID.