How HID BULBS/LAMPS AND BALLASTS Work- Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium, & Mercury Vapor
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- A lot of apprentices (and journeymen) have trouble understanding what makes HID lighting any different than regular lighting so troubleshooting them can be a bit confusing. Let's talk about it!
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HID lamps are easy to understand once you wrap your head around the idea that the light inside of one is produced from an arc inside of a tube. There are no metal wires inside of an HID lamp like you'd find in a standard incandescent. In fact this is the philosophy behind fluorescent tubes, neon signs, and compact-fluorescent as well. It's just an arc being struck in a tube, then the arc mixes with certain chemicals to form an arc-stream to produce visible light.
All HID lamps have a few things in common. 1) They use an arc to illuminate rather than a piece of metal. 2) They all use ballasts. 3) They are all used in relatively the same places - sports arenas/stadiums, street lighting, and parking lot lighting.
How these bulbs differ is where things get interesting:
Metal Halide
Metal Halide lamps use halide salts on the inside of the arc tube. Halide salts such as fluoride, bromide, chloride, and iodide are deposited around the inside of the inner arc-tube and when an arc is stricken through the tube, the halide salts start to vaporize into the arc stream. Each halide salt has a certain color profile that it adds to the finished light output, and a specific temperature has to be maintained in order to keep the lamp at the same color consistency. This is achieved by painting the pinched edges of the arc-tube white to reflect light back into the chamber.
Mercury Vapor
Rather than having any secondary elements in the arc tube to control the light color, a mercury vapor relies solely on the blue light emitted from vaporized mercury (which all 3 of these lamps have). What makes mercury vapor the most recognizable is the white coating around the inside of the lamp's outer envelope. Much like a fluorescent lamp, a mercury vapor lamp utilizes phosphorescence to control the color. Phosphor glows when introduced to UV light, so this coating helps to make the color of the glowing mercury less blue, and more white.
High-Pressure Sodium
HPS lamps are pretty well known for their yellowish/orange color output. This lamp operates similarly to the MH and MV lamps, however, the substances it uses to achieve its color and efficiency are hotter and require more pressure to ignite. Mercury is still inside of the inner arc-tube, however, there is also sodium which is a very hot burning substance. The arc-tubes of HPS lamps are very skinny and made from an opaque ceramic rather than quartz or glass like a MH or MV lamp would be.
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The ceramic core in the high-pressure sodium makes a great knife honing rod just thought I'd mention that....
Till it breaks and spills toxic mercury on your cooking utensils.
Great video. I’m glad to hear someone finally do a good detailed explanation on HID lighting. One small correction in terminology though. The ballast is the entire group of electrical components that condition the circuit before it reaches the lamp socket. The components include the transformer, capacitor, and (sometimes) ignitor. I appreciate you’re information. Very helpful.
Ive always loved the light of the Mercury Vapor lamps. Great video
Mercury vapor, high pressure sodium, and metal halide and neon like your Budlight, Miller Light, open, cools Lite, etc, fluorescent lights, all of those are electric discharge light sources. Even the strobes on fire alarm horn/strobes are discharge lights. Horn/strobes have Xenon discharge tubes in them. To keep this as simple as possible, an electric discharge light is electrical power jumping the gap across a gap between two electrodes and forming an arc. Really, if you remember Speed, you might remember the bus jump scene. That is really what the electric is doing in a discharge light, HID, fluorescent, neon, Xenon, etc. Picture the electric doing the Speed bus jump scene in the lamp. Because, that's really what's happening. The electric jumps the gap between two electrodes and strikes an arc.
Very new to electrical and electronic engineering i must say this video was VERY WELL MADE AND EASY TO FOLLOW. plus you can tell its a great video being 6 months old and only 2 dislikes.
Best explanation I've ever heard!
If you can please make a troubleshoot video of metal halides involving all situations (pulse or probe start lamps).
Thank you so much for sharing!
Nice, thanks. Years ago, I helped test HID arrays for a start-up company. HID lighting is very cool. I sure do love my Cooper Ballast 400W MH Pulse Start lamps in my shop.
Dustin, dude, I wish the teachers in every school I went to explained shit the way you do.
I really love these videos bro. Keep them coming!
Thanks so much! I'm preparing to take my Industrial Electrician exam and this video helped me a lot!
Another Great Video. keep them coming.
Cool video about the "HID" lamps. Two things though, (1) the ballast provides the necessary starting voltage for the lamp and limits the current. The ballast does not spike any voltage to the lamp, (pulse start metal halide & high pressure sodium vapor lamps only). The igniter / starter does the "pulsing" to get the lamp going. Mercury vapor lamps and most metal halide lamps are "probe start" , they have a "third electrode" with a resistor in series with the main electrode. (The igniter is just a capacitor case full of "leading peak" capacitors that builds up an electrical charge, greater than 2KVs to reach "electrical breakdown" in the ark stream. Some lamps can operate on "choke" ballasts, while some may need autotransformer ballasts (CWA or HX). (2) The capacitor is for power factor correction for the ballast creating a "lag" in the circuit. The capacitor reduces this lag and increases the power factor of the circuit. Without the capacitor, the power factor would be considerably low ( about .55 or .65 if your lucky). Adding the capacitor to the circuit raises the power factor to about .90 or even .95. And last but not least, be GENTLE handling these HID bulbs, they're vacuum jacket bulbs and can explode if enough force is exerted on the bulb glass.
I was definitely looking for a video by someone with your more detailed understanding of hid systems. This guys video was well made 4 common man lol I still cringe when I see him bare handling the bulbs 😬 I still think there is nothing more beautiful than a hortilux blue400wmh but LEDs are amazing now especially now summer is arriving.
@@DavidJones-ty1ht Just a couple of words of caution about using LED lighting: The LED light is a digital light source that shines within the more bluer to near ultraviolet side of the visible light spectrum. This kind of light has a much shorter wavelength and is the type of light that will cause more harm and destruction to us. And therefore, most LED lights with the exception of "Full Spectrum" LEDs, their visible light spectrum lacks any Near Inferred Light. Near Inferred Light is necessary for certain biological processes in our bodies, such as Melatonin production and to cancel out Rapid Oxygen Species (ROS) and to promote healthy healing of our tissues and cells in our bodies. The blue light, or "Blue Rays" from most LED lighting does a lot of damage to us, including inhibiting Melatonin production, (LED lighting destroys most Melatonin our bodies made while exposed to Sunlight) screwing up our circadian rhythms, (our biological "clocks") causing insomnia, increases ROS which will promote Macular Degeneration, obesity, diabetes and certain cardiovascular diseases. In 2016, LED lighting became Government Mandated in the US and the DOE is pushing for the implementation of LED lights for just about every lighting application, including replacing HID systems. And that movement is being backed by Philips Lighting of North America. Also in 2016, the American Medical Association warned that LED lighting can even cause certain types of cancers, including Melanoma and other skin cancers as well as even breast cancer in both men and women! In Europe, where the EU has completely banned the incandescent light, folks there are more or less FORCED to buy LED lighting products. Since this has happened, optometrists in Europe have been reporting higher cases of people developing Macular Degeneration, since the Incandescent light has been banned by the EU. Many people are getting on a plane and traveling to Hong Hong and buying Incandescent light bulbs there and bringing them to Europe where they live, just to avoid LED lighting. With that all being said, I would urge you to avoid those Satanic LED lighting products as much as possible and stick with using Incandescent bulbs for the nighttime. In the event you can't find regular Incandescent lamps and you come across the Halogen equivalent to say a 60 Watt or 75 Watt, I would get those Halogen bulbs. Both the Incandescent lamp and their "little brother", the Halogen lamp shine brightest in the Near Inferred part of the visible light spectrum. In my honest opinion, aside from all the harmful and destructive things LED lighting will do to us and the way they harm us, LED lighting is just utter crap. There not even worth the space that they consume on the face of this earth, let alone the energy or the resources required to manufacture them in the first place. I would also encourage you to stock up on Incandescent / Halogen bulbs as much as you can. A time is coming when all nonLED lighting products will disappear from store store shelves and it's already starting to happen.
Nice that the videos are flying out so fast. 😜Love the new setup and the new intro, hate the intro music thoug 🤨
Keep up the good Work 💪
I'm trying to hit at least 2 a week until I get ahead a little bit, maybe then I can do more but I'm not planning on it for the next few months at least. And the music will grow on you...kind of like listening to The Mars Volta or Radiohead. Doesn't make sense at first but after the 20th time you're hooked lol - at least I was that way.
Thanks for making this video. Great job explaining these HIDs in a very clear way. 👍🏼
Also just subscribed! Keep up the great work man!
Very informative. I was thinking and a good video for the newer guys might be different pulling heads. I know there’s a thousand different ways to tie wire to sticks, a fish, or a pull string, but I remember when I was really green, it was a struggle to not make a bulky head that constantly got hung up, or would pull off, or would get stuck on shit. Just an idea.
Very useful video since I had a fascination with these as a kid but had no resources to learn about this or anyone to ask that could explain like this. I mostly was interested in seeing the startup of these lights. Every gym I went to school at had the metal halides and many indoor pools I went swimming at as a kid also had these. My middle school pool had incandescent cylinder fixtures with self ballasted mercury vapor bulbs in them which they looked like incandescent when started up then faded to mercury vapor color.
Another awesome video, gracias maestro!
This is a great video, thanks for posting.
Another reason high pressure sodium lamps use a ceramic arc tube instead of quartz, is not just because aluminum oxide ceramic can withstand higher heat, but hot sodium is very reactive and chemically attacks and degrades glass and quartz, and aluminum oxide ceramic was found to be the only material that can remain transparent, while resisting temperatures around 2,300°F and being chemically inert with sodium.
When the low pressure sodium vapor lamp was introduced in the 1930s it was already known that efficiency and color rendering could be improved by increasing the temperature and pressure in the arc tube, but no material was suitable. So in 1955 General Electric discovered aluminum oxide ceramic, and in the late 1950s, built the first prototype high pressure sodium lamp. Available commercially around 1965, by the 1970s they have almost completely replaced mercury vapor lamps used for street lighting.
This is very helpful for me. Thank you for sharing.
Love your video very detailed just wish you would explain how to test and change out the various parts
All in all a good summary of HID lighting.We now have a new class of HID lamps-ceramic metals halide.These have a ceramic arc tube like a HPS lamp.CMH is pulse start like HPS and pulse start quarts halide lamps.CMH lamps run at higher temps-so the arc is more stable and halides stay in the arc-and give constant light output and color over the life of the lamp as opposed to quartz tube lamps.The ballasts are usually electronic-and have 120Hz square wave output-this gives less "flicker" when moving objects viewed under the lamp.-No strobing.CMH lamps can give higher lumens per watt than LED-and they give VERY long life-over 20,000 hrs!
I've heard of CMH and although they are far less common than the quartz metal halide one application where they really stand out is grow lamps.
@@Sparky-ww5re besides grow lamps the CMH light has been used in general lighting in stores. Philips originally developed the CMH lamp for street lighting-210W and the most common 315W. Philips many years ago sold ballast,lamp and reflector retrofit kits to convert older HPS and mercury streetlights to use the CMH lamp. 210w and 315w were the first and original sizes introduced by Philips lighting. Don’t know the dates these were introduced.
Keep up the good work!!
Awesome video Dustin. would like to see a trouble shooting video please
Clearly explained. Subscribed.
Very educational man , keep dropping jewels on us bro bro 😄, thanks for the vids
Thanks for watching my dude!
Great video. Have you made the video on how to trouble shoot the components in the high pressure sodium lighting system? Thank you.
I appreciate all your videos. Thank you and keep up with this valuable information. 💯💯🙏🙏💯💯
Super! Thank you very much!
Excellent and detailed explanation. I've learned something new. Thank you and God Bless you. Steven.
pretty pushy of you to be TELLING god what to do. so the rest of us dont get one of your on-tap bless orders for G-daddy? Can we get a little half bless? Or even a 1/4 cool? Hell, I would just save that shit up till I got enuf stashed to actually blast them in for an issue.
lmao. surely you understand that is a term of endearment. Furthermore, no one bosses the big guy around ;) so you, or anyone else doesn`t feel left out. I brought a whole mess of blessings to share. Blessings for everyone! (fresh out of a prayer request ,just now submitted)
Only over found them in one place (open high bays on a mechanic shop) but i did run into shatter resistant MH lamps before with the extended nipple. All the same markings on the lamp as a normal one just with a long contact nipple on the bottem. Took a couple minutes to figure out with testing the ballast and it being ok and the new lamp not turning on. If that happens to you take a look at the old lamp nipple
Well done!
Great Rundown!
This is awesome brother! 🤩🙏Thank you! Very helpful! I greatly appreciate this, God bless you.
Solid video but not one mention of them being grow lights lol. Or how on wire runs of over 50' 1000 watt bulb may not to run properly. The ballasts you shown are now going out of style because if the new digital ones. The old magnetic ones give off a lot of heat from the bulb and ballast. In fact the temp rite under a 1000 watt bulb is around 900° and touching one accidentally will leave a burn and scar. (Proof on my back lol). The digital ballasts run cool to the touch and many can fire hps or mh of any wattage like 400 600 1000 and even dimmable. But in my experience they cannot be repaired like the old school magnetic ones you can buy just the igniter or capacitor. It would be interesting to see you explain or deconstruct the light controllers available today for running multiple light set-up like the powerbox or titan. Not sure where you learned all the bulb info with gases and such but you taught me something today I've been working with these on and flickering off for over 2 decades now. Keep up the good work man. Good work speaks for itself I say
Great video, how about a video on wiring/troubleshooting them?
Replaced lots of the solid state starters and ballasts about thirty years ago. And some of them took long time to start glowing.
On my resume, I down graded my experience by 10 years because I want to start at the bottom because things may have been left out of the training I have from the past. I'm after journeyman or master. I did pass a class at a junior college with a+. Towards the end, I helped the teacher with the class and he knows my experience first hand. Residential and industrial.
I know this is an older video but it was awesome and informative. I have an old 200 watt HMI (hydrargum medium arc iodide) studio light and it is basically a fancy compact metal halide lamp “daylight” color fixture. The fixture will not arc and doesn’t make the traditional “Zzzh” sound like it should since it has to have an ignitor. The ballast is electronic and dimmable and uses long cable for wiring. My question is: how can I troubleshoot this light? I have narrowed it down to it NOT being the ballast causing the issue. In the fixture onboard I think it’s just an ignitor and ignitor timer that I have researched on. I haven’t dissected the fixture yet. Also, as a nice useless trivia fact, in studio lights they call the lamps globes. I have no idea why. Anyway I replaced the globe with a new one and it still doesn’t work. Any ideas would be great!
I like your style of teaching, it makes perfect sense and you make complicated subjects easy to learn keep up the good work ! two thumbs up
Perfect explanation, Thanks,
and I just ask a question about ballast and ignitor if you have time to explain
What will be the maximum cable from ballast+ignitor to lamp ?
if i am using 1000W Son-T ?
I must admit Electrician U isn't exactly my style ... but this was by far one of the best electrical videos I have seen for some time...
Great video man. It would be nice of you if you made another pipe bending video but intermediate/advance such as saddle bends etc. Thank you for the great content
A lot of people have been requesting this so it's on my list to get out over the next month. I have some ideas for several different types of videos - how to bend several and do multiple bends in a tight space etc...Stay tuned, probably still a few weeks away though
@@ElectricianU Thank you man, you are the best.
Hey great video! If I have an actual grow company ballast (Hydrotek) large magnetic do I just need a 6kv pulse socket and cord? Or is there an igniter generally in grow sockets? Or do I need an igniter like this still. Basically what I am asking is if i buy a grow/lamp socket with cord is there an igniter in it? Thanks
Great explanation!
Best video I've seen explaining the different lights. It's a common misconception that LEDs are more efficient than sodium lights. LED streetlights "save energy" by lighting a smaller area to a lower level of luminance, a practice justified by the thoroughly-debunked application of a Scotopic/Photopic ratio. In reality LEDs, especially those that produce warmer light, are less efficient at producing light than sodium vapor lamps.
Great video. I've switched all of my MH to LED but would still love to see how to wire/diag them. Also, do you plan on doing a video on LED fixtures for parking lots/exterior lights?
I do plan on doing one, probably not for the next couple of months but it's definitely on the list. Before the LED stuff I'll have wiring/diagnosing them for sure. That's on the list to film next month
I'm going to consider solar power as I remodel my families ancestral home. I'm going to be adding a ballast to every circuit after being generated, stored, inverted? And control ed
If anyone has a reason for NOT placing a ballast type transformer to every circuit please contact me
Awesome video
Beautiful Lamp 😊
This was very helpful to me. I ran into one of these MH lights for the first time, and was not sure how it worked. Thanks!!!
Awesome!
The ballast is a highly inductive component. The capacitor is there to adjust the power factor towards 1.
Cool video. .How and where are the capacitors wired with the light and the ballast ?
Great video
Hey great video! Can i run industrial string light say (5) 150 watt HPS bulbs from a 750 watt ballast?
Very well done video! A video suggestion that you may want to do is discuss colors, degrees of kelvin. Most people have no idea what this even means. I wish you success with your channel. Hopefully you will not mind comments once in a while! Respectfully, Kevin
I've got that coming actually! Thanks for the suggestion - and the support
Electrician U Anything for accurate electrical videos that promote safety!
thanks for such an informative Video. I have a question, we have a 2000W 380V metal halide light at tennis court and before we were using the lamps that are with internal ignitor, but now that lamps are not available in Market. can we use the 2000W 380V metal halide lamps with EXTERNAL ignitor?? or it can damage the ballast or anything??
waiting for your advice thanks.
Do you have a troubleshooting video on these lights? 347v to be specific
Great video, thanks. Could you do one about ballasts like the ones in this vid compared to transformers, pls? Why are these ballasts and not transformers (or ballasts as well as transformers)? And when and how do these ballasts release a pulse - how they / the system work / s, basically. Thanks.
They are transformers. His terminology is a little off. The ballast is the entire group of electrical components that condition the circuit properly before it gets to the lamp socket. Those components include the transformer, capacitor, and (sometimes) ignitor.
Great video, I like what you were saying, as you're very knowledgeable the only thing I do disagree with that LEDs are not cheaper to run because most people forget they do not produce a lot of heat so you spend more time money on heating the room up because LEDs run quite cool compared to hid. As most grow are tropical.
Ceramic Metal Halide can produce more lumens per watt than LED.The BAD things about LED---NO standards regarding LED "lamps"elements and drivers(like a ballast for HID and fluorescent)ALL electric lighting is subject to wear and failures.At least with HID and flourescents they re made to ANSI standards.The bulbs and ballasts are made to these standards so they are interchangeable among manufacturers.LEDS have no ANSI standards-at least yet.For LED lights-usually means you have to replace the WHOLE fixture if it fails-With HID you just replace the ballast transformer,cap,or ignitor if any of those fail-and of course the bulb.With HID you don't usually have to replace the whole fixture if the light fails-just the defective component.
This is only relevant if you are in a very cold climate. Though ironically, it's countries in said cold climates that ban things like incandescent light bulbs. In terms of street or outdoor lighting, LEDs are actually not that much more efficient than high pressure Sodium lamps. Furthermore, one respect in which high pressure sodium lamps are superior to LEDs is that they don't produce as much light pollution.
Is there a way to check if the mercury vapor or metal halide ballast work? I installed a lamp for my brother in law because the previous lamp apparently blew up. There's continuity between the common and lines, between the capacitor and lamp holder, also between lamp holder thread and lines. In the 277 line, there seems to be around 4-6 ohms of resistance between that and the other lines, I don't know if that helps..
I plan on just wiring it up to a spliced power chord, connecting it to a gfci, and measuring the output voltage at the lamp holder. But is there a way to check with just my meter? The functional fixture read output around 250V. Input is 120V.
Struck.. top vid man
Very informative video!
A question though: assuming you had all 3 types of lamps in the same wattage, what's the difference between the ballasts? You couldn't use a 250W mercury vapor lamp on a 250W metal halide ballast? Or is the voltage different?
Hello. For depending on the bulbs with metal iodides, high-pressure sodium vapors and mercury vapors? Are their internal sources warmer than halogen bulbs? Sodium vapors or metal iodides, more than mercury vapors?
Mercury, not "Murcury." Fun class. Thank you for the instruction. Much appreciated.
💚💚💚💚 bookmark/ notes: inert gas like helium gas above uranium ( delicate glass / loose earth dirt )
GREAT VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome video 👌👌👌👌👌🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
can i use one of them for video lightong?
I’ve swapped out a few metal halides for a client and there was a loud coming from a couple of the posts that I didn’t work on. What’s is the cause of that loud hum? It had the igniter setup and the lights still came on and worked fine.
Very interesting and helpful info here and a troubleshooting video on these lighting systems would be much appreciated.
Thank you!
Humming? That would be the resonance from the devices them selves. Same thing happens in audio equipment. You can hear a 60hz hum if you don't do stuff correctly.
All electrical equipment can do such things. Just the higher the frequency the more audible it can be.
Are there regular 110v hps bulbs that operate safely in a normal wall circuit standard plug that can be use without running it through a ballast? or does this kind of lighting require it to be ran through 220v through a ballast? thanks
thank you. Troubleshooting, please.
I'm doing a lot of research just to make a bat signal halloween decoration from an old tennis court light. Originally ran on 380-480V and I'm trying to figure out how to power off of 110 or 220V.
i have a light pole that has hid light ignites but won't light up completely, is it the ballast or the condenser
Do you need the capacitor? I have seen these lamps wired directly to the ballast before. This is from a CDM type lamp.
Also ceramic metal halide Bulbs are some of the best running lights I've ever seen
Where can I buy theese, I would realy like to have the white one, because I like when its different color at start
But are theese made for home use?
Similar to welding gasses, shielding the arc to reduce instant oxidation due to ambient air contamination!
Would u possibly be able to help me with wiring one of those mercury halide lamps up?
Great Video,
Is it possible to change the mercury lamp with MH? without changing ballast and capacitor.
You will have to change the ballast as 480v. ballast are kind of in a league of their own as a hight voltage ballast. The low voltage series typically comes as a muti tap input to accept 120, 208, 240 and 277 volts. This is the one you need. Make sure to match the lamp wattage as ballast are very lamp specific as far as type and wattage.
Some are good for keeping a large indoor hydroponic Tomato garden.
Working with MH requires a transformer/capacitor or transformer/ballast? Does a ballast act similar to a capacitor? Could a video be made for wiring MH transformer with a capacitor for inputs of all common voltages and outputs?
Would be nice to explain the wiring
How do we get to view the 3 private videos in this playlist?
Im sitting here watching you wave those three bulbs around growing in anxiety that you're going to smash them together while i'm trying to figure out how the ballast and the capacitor work together.
Will a LPS bulb work in a HPS ballast of equal watt rating?
Hi - nice informational talk! With the Hg metal halide bulb (clear) - does the arc tube put out a lot of Hg UV light which is absorbed by the glass outer bulb? Which Hg vapor bulb has the most UVc arc tube output? Does the Na Hg light (3rd on your list) have a higher UV output? I'm looking for an arc tube that with a UVc output on the order of 10 W/ cm^2 at a distance of 1 m. Do you know of any bulbs like that ? Regards - Tim
U dont want UVC coming out of your lamp as it’s very dangerous to all living organisms
@@ObjectiveAnalysis yes and that is why it can be used against pathogens. UVc is easy to manage and shield from (i.e. one layer of cloth, plastic, paper, ...etc.). It is better than spraying ozone and other chemicals, and can be repeated often as needed. It's danger is in the hands of those who have little understanding of its behavior.
Osram makes metal halide UVS bulbs which help block harmful UV. They use these types of lamps in stage fixtures since people tend to be around them for an extended period of time
You can break that high pressure sodium bulb and use the ceramic as a knife sharpener. Just a little tip
About low/high pressure sodium I expected they are both orange, but one of them with some pink tint and they start differently. I think mercury lamps are not used since late 80s or so or are they?
Can you make a video on how to handle hot wires/ what safety precautions to take
There's a lot of places I could take this - a lot of people that would tell you not to do it at all and there are those of us who have done enough emergency work to know that sometimes you just can't avoid it. Either way, good suggestion I'll write that down
@@ElectricianU i just think it would be a good lesson. One of co-workers got hit with 480 last Thursday hanging on to his life right now.
Would like a trouble shooting on metal hydride.
With those lighting systems, what (if any) differences are there between 120 and 240 volt?
They work the same either way, you just have to make sure you hook up the correct leads. Many ballasts come as "multi-tap" ballasts meaning they have the option to be hooked up to multiple voltage systems.
That long slim sodium bulb looks like a low pressure sodium bulb. You don’t see many low pressure sodium lamps around anymore. Lots of people have no idea there is a low and a high sodium bulb.
Can u run multiple lights bulbs on one ballast. For example if u had 1000watt ballast hps, could u run 3 300watt bulbs on it in parallel or series circuit
You know I’ve never seen that done, I don’t know. I know the ballast isn’t designed to do that but as long as it’s strictly parallel and the same current is going through the starter and capacitor it should work in theory. The starting current may be more than the smaller lamps can handle, and each one could possibly get over driven on startup but shoot maybe not. You’ve got me curious to try it. The capacitor should handle it I’d think
@@ElectricianU
If u do try pls send me a message or Link of vid. Would be very interesting
@@ElectricianU
Also the ballast is nothing but a transformer we use this in the grid all the time. My logic is if we are getting 100 amps into the fuse box of our houses and run low wattage devices on it. Why wouldn't it work on the hid bulbs as long as the voltage is the correct one for the bulbs.
Well the HID lamp is a fickle creature. It’s not just a transformer it’s an auto transformer with a capacitor, and in some cases a high voltage pulse starter. Everything has to remain stable for the arc. As long as all of the lamps get equal treatment I’d think it would work just fine. But each lamp starting differently might draw currents in/out in a way that it messes one up. Just a theory off the cuff...not at all thought out. I’ll put this on the list though, thanks for the thought experiment!
I'm pretty sure that if there was not an inert gas inside the inner chamber It would last only seconds perhaps only minutes. Oxidation does quite the job at high temperatures on all kinds of metal.
Great presentation. From what I was told, the capacitors aren't necessary. What is the capacitance of the capacitor, as it is not stated on the ballast itself or on the lamp?
If it is a constant wattage auto- transformer type ballast then the capacitor is necessary it aids in power regulation to the the lamp
@@dylanoakes9557 thank you but what sort of capacitor and what capacitance?
@@dima685ds6 look on the ballast core itself it will tell you if it is a cwa type and the microfarad value and voltage rating of capacitor to use
Excellent stuff. Thank you!
they really went backwords in the 70-80s with HPS lights.. the orange light is terrible when driving at night, you cant see parked/broken down cars very well, you cant see pedestrians walking across the streets.. the orange glow hides dark objects too well.. and shadows everything.. they may have alot more lumens per watt than the mercury vapor they replaced.. but mercury vapor lights have better visibility due to having nearly all the color spectrum we can see.. This white light, is why everything is being replaced with LED.. now we have white lights that save energy. despite HPS still having more lumen per watt than even leds... Lumens lux par mean nothing if you CANT see it. This is why im lighting my property with 4 MV lamps.. sure 700 watts is alot of power.. about 20$ a month in energy for me... But the cost even with cheap 70w dusk to dawn LEDs isnt worth it.. itd cost me $500 to get 4 new leds.. and itd take 4 years to see me save money on power for that $500 cost... then another 4 years to even save $500 in power.. Will those chinese led fixtures last 4 years or 8 years or even 12 months ? i doubt it.. Which is why im sticking with my mercury vapor lamps.
The only thing LED i switched too are from incandescent interior lights, or halogen flood lights
what is the normal operating surface temp. of any one of those bad boys?
Hey Dustin, I'm a union stagehand who works in electrics, but my passion is follow spot operation. Most spots operate on a HID lamp.
It would be amazing to see a video about carbon vs xenon lamps.