self-balasted metal halide lamp

[Hemingray]

The only other self-ballasted lamps I ever heard of(which are still made today) are self-ballasted mercury vapor lamps..

[waran777]

Has anybody comeout with a small electronic ballast for MH lamps? Like what they have for CFLs? That can be a good answer to self ballasted Metal halides.

[James]

Yes since the late 1980's both Philips and Osram have beem selling electronic ballasts for low wattage metal halide lamps.  Today quite a few companies make electronic ballasts for metal halide lamps from 20W to 2000W.  They are really only popular in Europe and Japan though, I am not sure if any American firms offer this technology yet.

Of most interest at the moment in Europe are th new dimming electronic ballasts.  This week I tried out 2 new ballasts which can dim the metal halide lamp down to 25% light output without flicker and only very slight colour shift.

Still, the problem with them all is that they do not have a hot restrike feature.  Until that is sorted out I don't think we'll see anyone integrating a metal halide lamp and ballast again, certainly for domestic use anyway.

James.

[Ray Ladegast]

Hi Every one
I feel very lucky, I just purchased a GE Miser Maxi-Light metal hilide bulb. It is in the origional plastic protector and carton. The carton is plain with "Evaluation Not for Sale" printed on it. I tried it out, it changes color temp. several times befor becomming a daylight blue. I will try to get out some pictures soon.

Cheers, Ray L.

[James]

Despite what I said earlier, it seems that Shenyang Everbright in China is now making these things again!  They are one of the leading HID innovators in China, always something new each year.  See the link at http://www.eblight.com/product/sbls1.htm

JLZ 50 is the MH version, the rest are sodium types driven on electronic ballast.

James