Age of Low Bays?

[Kev]

After Re-Lamping that low bay in the gym of one of the schools i look after it got me thinking...How long have low bays been out for? These THORN EMI black gear tray low bays were definatly fitted in the early 80s. One thing i did notice is that they were MK15?
SO does anyone know when the first low bays came out and what the looked like?

[Tom]

I think the Low Bay concept, the rectangular box as we know it, doesn't go back much further than mid to late 70s.

[sailormoon01uk]

I think Osram GEC introduced the Champion Low Bay Light and the Harrier Low bay Light in 1981, Thorn introduced the Lowpak around the same time, as the popularity of SON Lamps Grew then.

All the Best

Colin

[Ash]

In Lighting Gallery there are some posted from the US, recessed square boxes, with A shaped 100W mercury lamps. That would be no later than 60's i think

As for what i seen myself, the square lowbays are new, before them there were quite a lot of other things abused as lowbays - highbays with undersized lamp, fluorescent packs, streetlights, floodlights....

I can think of one very old design, that might actually be a fixture meant to be a lowbay. It is about the size to barely fit a 125W merc in it, usually used with 125W merc (remote gear) or 200W incandescent. And it is threaded in a way that makes it go well with metal-pipe installations, especially attached to the cover of metal wiring boxes and such

[Paul]

The Thorn Lopak as a square box probably goes back no earlier than the mid 70's IMHO.
With fittings, I notice that the MK numbers go up alot on Thorn fittings. Look at the Popular pack, it was on MK12 in the late 80's yet we all know the PP wasn't a nice slim batten throughout it's whole design

[LinearSLI-H]

Thorns `Lowpak` low bay is in the 1978 catalogue, for 250watt MBF, SON and MBIF, with a 150watt SON version too.