Abstract: High-pressure-sodium HID lamps characteristically display an increasing operating voltage throughout life. The industry has established operating standards as a trapezoidal figure on a graph wherein lamp wattage is plotted on the axis of ordinates and lamp voltage is plotted on the axis of abscissas. The parallel trapezoid sides represent minimum permissible and maximum permissible operating lamp wattages and the remaining sides of the trapezoidal figure are two lines of sharply rising positive slope which represent minimum permissible and maximum permissible lamp voltages.The lamp-life operating characteristics are describable by a curve which enters into the trapezoid through the line representing minimum lamp voltages and which exits from the trapezoid through the line representing maximum lamp voltages.