One may purchase a commercial-grade 7,000 lumen LED Fixture complete with a 50,000 hour lamp for about US$60. Note that LEDs do not have 'wasted' lumens as they are all directed out, so 35-50 watts of LED is equivalent to 175 watts of HID light, even in a well-designed fixture.

A "smart" HID Ballast may be had for about US$50. Changing it out properly takes both knowledge and skill.

The typical HID lamp costs about US$8, and lasts about 10,000 hours.

Around here, power is about $0.14/KWH

So, in 50,000 hours, a 50-watt LED fixture will burn about 2,500 KWH, or US$350 in power. Making the investment $410 in total for that 50,000 hours.

That 175 watt lamp will burn 8,750 KWH and need to be replaced five (5) times.

So: $1,225 in power. $40 in lamps, $50 in a ballast. Total investment of $1,315.

Then, there is the issue with heat, modification of of a fixture outside of its design parameters, and so forth.

Hence the comment on Common Sense being an uncommon commodity.

What are you doing anyway? Jacklighting deer?

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA