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Author Topic: Odd problem  (Read 12564 times)

Offline mr_big

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Odd problem
« on: February 24, 2005, 05:43:51 pm »
I have noticed that an old mercury lamp in my yard has been turning on and off like an HPS Lamp I know it is not the sensor because it does it at night too any ideas on what might be causing this
by the way the lamp is fairly new it is only a couple of months old it is not a chinese made lamp the company that makes this is philips

Offline pSlawinski

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Re: Odd problem
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2005, 09:38:57 pm »
Is this the same fixture that killed the Sylvania lamp?  It sounds like the lamp is cycling.

Offline mr_big

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Re: Odd problem
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2005, 11:21:22 am »
no this is not the same fixture that killed the sylvania lamp it is an entirley different fixture with a brand new ballast

Offline pSlawinski

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Re: Odd problem
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2005, 04:45:56 pm »
You could just have another dud.  Have you tried running another lamp in the fixture to see if the same problem occurs?

Offline Mónico González

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Re: Odd problem
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2005, 09:35:13 pm »
What position are the lamp working at? horizontal or vertical?
I've watched the same problem 16 years ago on a "Metal-Mazda" MMF 160w blended mercury lamp because these was fitted horizontally into a particular downlight street fixture at my countryside home.
Mixed lamps are primarily intended for vertical up or down burning position, at which, the convective flux in filling gas allows a proper dissipation of heat generated by both arc tube and filament.
If a such lamp are horizontally or almost placed, the lower portion of filament surrounding the arc tube, overheats this, making to raise their pressure over the specified limits, giving as a result that the arc extinguises because the voltage between electrodes reaches the critical value to be unstable. So, the lamp suddenly turns off until temperature decreases and the mains voltage are enough to ionize the arc tube again.
However, these problem are not be seen on regular high pressure mercury (not blended) lamps too often, because they are intended for working in any position.
Sometimes the vicinity of the reflector over the lamp blocks the correct convective cooling of outer bulb at a so degree that the whole lamp severely overheats, allowing the arc could be dissapear repeatedly (in the best of the cases!).
When a such problem are seen, the most reasonable thing to do is to test the lamp at the same position, using the right ballast, but out of the luminaire to find out about the lamp alone or combined lamp/ballast/fixture "healt".
Another thing to test is the mains voltage. If this is too low, the arc tube could de-ionizate repeatedly when the pressure within it reaches the upper limit. This is a phenomenon I've observed too many times at my countryside home street lamps, which I've fitted with 80 and 125w clear mercury lamps, in a time when the line voltage used to drop at night, down below 190-200 volts instead the nominal 220-230 volts, due to a severe overload of the line.

Best regards.
M. Gonz?lez.

Offline mr_big

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Re: Odd problem
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2005, 02:30:07 pm »
this lamp is running in the vertical position
I know that there is nothing wrong with the ballast it is the right type

Offline pSlawinski

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Re: Odd problem
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2005, 03:14:37 pm »
Try running another lamp in the fixture, if that lamp does not cycle then the problem is bad lamp.