480 pulse ballast kits moving to base of 35 ft lot light pole for 1000W MH

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Regg

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Our 1000W lot light MH fixtures have a short service life of less than 1/2 year. 35 foot poles require us to rent out lift equipment regularly or hire an electrical contractor to bring out a boom truck to keep them running. I put in complete ballast kits when I service them.The hinged compartment for the ballast,ignitor, and cap is so small the wires need to be rearranged 3 or more times just to get it shut. My idea is that heat has no where to escape to so I would like to move the entire ballast kit to the base of the lot light pole into a well ventilated rainproof enclosure. Has anyone done this? Are there any problems such as during the pulse start a lot of EMF would be created around the condutors inside the pole
damaging insulation due to movement? I have contacted the manufacturer and haven't recieved a response yet. Moving the ballast kits down would reduce heating and increase servicability. Any info appreciated.
 
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Hv&Lv

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Regg said:
Our 1000W lot light MH fixtures have a short service life of less than 1/2 year. 35 foot poles require us to rent out lift equipment regularly or hire an electrical contractor to bring out a boom truck to keep them running. I put in complete ballast kits when I service them.The hinged compartment for the ballast,ignitor, and cap is so small the wires need to be rearranged 3 or more times just to get it shut. My idea is that heat has no where to escape to so I would like to move the entire ballast kit to the base of the lot light pole into a well ventilated rainproof enclosure. Has anyone done this? Are there any problems such as during the pulse start a lot of EMF would be created around the condutors inside the pole
damaging insulation due to movement? I have contacted the manufacturer and haven't recieved a response yet. Moving the ballast kits down would reduce heating and increase servicability. Any info appreciated.
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What type lights (brand) are these? We have 1000W MH lights in car lots that we don't service but every couple of years or so.
 
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hurk27

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Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Sounds like you have more going on then just a heat problem, while I agree some manufactures do not provide a way to keep the heat from the lamp away from the components and it does shorten the life (Why I use RUUD Lighting fixtures because they do) most do, if you are loosing ballast that often then I would say you need to look at other things, like voltage drop, type of lamps used, wiring, and a few other things.
 
kbsparky

kbsparky

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I have remote-mounted ballasts for hi-bay lights over a swimming pool. We mounted `em in an electrical room adjacent to the pool/gymnasium area. The only wiring to the fixtures was the 2-conductors needed for the lamp sockets.

I'd suggest mounting a trough near the base of the pole, and put your ballast(s) in there.
 
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Regg

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Hv&Lv said:
What type lights (brand) are these? We have 1000W MH lights in car lots that we don't service but every couple of years or so.
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These are Lithonia lot lights and the bulbs are horizontal. However I haven't been able to sell the use of horizontal designated bulbs because of the higher initial price. Don't know if switching would make much difference.
 
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Regg

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Venture chart

Venture chart

masterinbama said:
I found this chart at Venture lighting.

http://www.venturelighting.com/techcenter/RemoteMounting.html


I'm trying to figure out where mounting a ballast 650' from a 50watt lamp would ever be needed.
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Thanks for the chart. It looks like 10 ft would be the maximum ignitor to bulb distance for our 1000W MH but the ballasts and caps? could be moved down to the base with no problems. It may be time for an experiment! Maybe the ignitor solution would be to place them inside the poles away from the bulbs. I'll report back what the manfacturer has to say (if they respond). My questions were refered to Acuity Lighting. My first time trying to reply to responses. Hope this works.
 
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