Is a bulb more than good or bad?

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ritelec

Senior Member
Location
Jersey
A "potential" customer mentioned he had a few bulbs out in the back...

In the back is a warehouse with high bay lighting.

Two fixtures where/are out.

The employee said they would flicker then come on or not. (not sure if after on they would flicker and off?)

As I was leaving he mentioned others in that row do the same thing.


Questioning, and I could be bonkers, but I think I remember reading that hid bulbs have a couple of parts, so rather than the bulb being good or bad and working or not, it may be on the way out and working till it fails.
Is this true?

Reason I ask is I'm thinking about taking a known working bulb from an existing working fixture and trying them in the two before I replace fixtures..

Thank you.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
A "potential" customer mentioned he had a few bulbs out in the back...

In the back is a warehouse with high bay lighting.

Two fixtures where/are out.

The employee said they would flicker then come on or not. (not sure if after on they would flicker and off?)

As I was leaving he mentioned others in that row do the same thing.


Questioning, and I could be bonkers, but I think I remember reading that hid bulbs have a couple of parts, so rather than the bulb being good or bad and working or not, it may be on the way out and working till it fails.
Is this true?

Reason I ask is I'm thinking about taking a known working bulb from an existing working fixture and trying them in the two before I replace fixtures..

Thank you.
What kind of HID lamps?

High pressure sodium that is near end of life tends to cycle. What happens is the lamp draws more current as it ages, and when it's useful life is about up it draws more then the ballast can supply which once that point is reached the arc is extinguished. After a short time (usually just a minute or two) the pressure in the lamp falls enough that the arc can be restarted, but as the lamp warms up it eventually draws more then the ballast can deliver again starting the whole cycle all over again. The longer you leave that lamp in service the shorter the cycle becomes, it may only cycle once an hour initially and eventually ends up cycling every few minutes. Most of the time all that is needed is lamp replacement when this happens.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Thanks kwired.

That's good to know..

The bulbs I reference may be metal halide or mercury vapor ??? whiteish blueish ??

Found this also...

http://synergylightingusa.com/how-to-tell-if-a-metal-halide-light-bulb-or-ballast-need-replaced/

The more blueish it has to it the more likely it is mercury vapor. Those generally just get dimmer the longer they are in service. I have seen many that are still putting out light but are almost useless unless they are the only light around, put in a new lamp and it is unbelievable how much more light there is. But MV is ancient technology and if that is what you have you need to consider alternate replacements. It may not even be easy to find lamps or ballasts for replacement anymore.

Probe start MH many just suggest trying a new lamp, if it doesn't work replace the entire ballast and capacitor, I have replaced just the capacitor only with some success though. Usually if the capacitor is bad the lamp will light but not reach full brightness.

I don't have as much experience with troubleshooting PSMH but they are more like HPS in many ways - they have an ignitor just like a HPS has that gives a high voltage pulse to start the arc. If ignitor goes bad it is not going to start.
 

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
One public utility we work with who has 750,000 HID street lights will replace the bulb, ballast and control all at the same time on a 4.3 year interval because the trip charge is the most expensive part of the servicing. FYI
 
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