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Metal Halide mixup/issues

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powerplay

Senior Member
I had come across a 250W MH bulb in an 175W MH fixture which was running low light levels for 2 years. I changed to the proper 175W bulb and it lit the area up brightly as it should. What happens to the components when this happens?...bulb life, coil kit, any dangers?

I have been told that putting a 175W MH bulb into an 250W MH fixture would work, but was curious also of what it does to the parts if it does work...is it worth it and really save money, or is it going to burn out the bulb and create a danger?

One more question is how does putting an MH bulb into an HPS fixture affect the lifespan, etc. of bulb.. coil? Better CRI, but does it have the lifespan of an metal halide bulb in a MH fixture?

Thanks for any feedback, Have a great day!
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
The ballast is designed to provide the correct current to the lamp, using a smaller lamp on a larger ballast will provide to much current to the lamp and I imagine shorten t's life significantly.

Use a larger lamp on a smaller ballast and if it lights at all it will not produce full lumens.
 
I had come across a 250W MH bulb in an 175W MH fixture which was running low light levels for 2 years. I changed to the proper 175W bulb and it lit the area up brightly as it should. What happens to the components when this happens?...bulb life, coil kit, any dangers?

I have been told that putting a 175W MH bulb into an 250W MH fixture would work, but was curious also of what it does to the parts if it does work...is it worth it and really save money, or is it going to burn out the bulb and create a danger?

One more question is how does putting an MH bulb into an HPS fixture affect the lifespan, etc. of bulb.. coil? Better CRI, but does it have the lifespan of an metal halide bulb in a MH fixture?

Thanks for any feedback, Have a great day!

To answer your first question it will be dim compared to stanard 250 watter espceally if the ballast say 175 watt it wil design to handle just about 170-180 watt range depeneding on ballast allowance.

to answer your second question I know it will lit up pretty bright but you will shorten the bulb life and good risk have the bulb failure in kinda voilent way { I have see that happend pretty often when someone overdrive the bulb }

Now to answer your last question .,

There are some bulbs in market that do change from HPS to MH and they are specal designed bulb that work on HPS system the last time I did change was quite few years ago so hard to say what they are cost now.

The cost of Pulse start MH is dropping to the point where you will pay for new luminaire sometime it make sense to replace with new luminaire instead of keeping HPS luminaire and converted to MH with specal bulb.


However you will first thing you will noticed is the CRI and colour itself is much whiter but the bulb life is about right on par with other MH's about 16K hours


Merci,Marc
 
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