I have a customer who called me out last week to take a look at lighting situation they were having. They have some outdoor lighting around their downtown offices used as pathway lighting. This pathway lighting is in a recessed wallpack type fixture and uses 1 - 70 watt Pulse Start Metal Halide lamp.
Two weeks ago a ballast exploded. It sheared off the heads of the four screws holding the faceplate of the fixture on leaving the screws themselves still within the fixture. Then it flung the faceplate across the street about 100'. The lamp, amazingly, was left intact.
My customer chalked it up as being an odd fluke. One in a million. Then, a week later, a second ballast exploded with equally disturbing force. The lamp, this time, was not as lucky.
I have never seen a ballast explode with such force, nor heard of it happening. A quick google search gave me nothing, other than the odd CFL lamp catching fire or smoking.
Has anyone ever seen this? Any idea what could be causing it?
Two weeks ago a ballast exploded. It sheared off the heads of the four screws holding the faceplate of the fixture on leaving the screws themselves still within the fixture. Then it flung the faceplate across the street about 100'. The lamp, amazingly, was left intact.
My customer chalked it up as being an odd fluke. One in a million. Then, a week later, a second ballast exploded with equally disturbing force. The lamp, this time, was not as lucky.
I have never seen a ballast explode with such force, nor heard of it happening. A quick google search gave me nothing, other than the odd CFL lamp catching fire or smoking.
Has anyone ever seen this? Any idea what could be causing it?