The ultimate discharge lamp startup video

You won't see this anywhere else - all three types of HID lamps in both clear and coated versions, starting up all at once.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• mercury
• vapor
• high
• pressure
• sodium
• metal
• halide
• light
• bulbs
• lamps
• hps
• mv
• mh
• startup
• warm-up
• turn
• on
• humming
• buzzing
• ballast
• BLINDINGLY
• BRIGHT

[DXMorpheus]

Does a metal halide lamp need a ballast to run? I have a 125W MV and a 160W MBT bulb and was thinking of getting a metal halide bulb too, I just experiment with different lighting sources

[jmartis2]

@DXMorpheus Yes all discharge lamps need a ballast, the "mercury blended" bulbs have a filament in series with the burner to limit the current, all other lamps need a ballast.

[Lachlant1984]

These are the kind of bulbs they use in street lights, right? Just how much current are they drawing from the power board you've connected them to? Once they've fully warmed up does the noise they make drop in volume? How hot do the glass bulbs get? the bulb second from the right is playing merry hell with your camera, it's causing vertical lines to run up and down my screen? Do the lights normally flicker like that, or is that just your camera?

[jmartis2]

Yes they are used in street lights or anywhere where long life and high efficiency are needed, and long start-up and restrike time doesn't matter.

I think all of those drew something like 16 amps from 230V mains.

Yes when they warm up the noise drops in volume, the noise comes from the ballasts and less current flows once the bulbs warm up.

The glass gets VERY hot, around 350°C.

The vertical lines and flickering come just from the camera, normally they flicker at 100Hz which is not visible.

[martbert]

didnt the uncoated mercury one give you a suntan that must have been producing tons of UV..?

[Coiltec]

@zker666 High pressure sodium bulbs are one of the most efficient light sources: The smaller ones have some 80...100 lm/W; the bigger ones (like 1kW) even have 150lm/W.

Only some white LEDs also reach nearly 150lm/W. But LEDs aren't practically usable for generating huge amounts of light (let's say 200,000 lumens) because they are very expensive and the cooling is a big problem.

And low pressure sodium lamps even reach ~200lm/W - but they emit monochromatic yellow light...

[Lachlant1984]

@zker666 Are they banning those bulbs because of the energy ineffiency business or is there some other reason? What will they use in street lights after those globes are banned?

[a380rockerfan]

WHOA! BRRRRRRBBRBRBRBRBBBBRRRRRRRRRR­RRRRRRRRRBBRBRBBBBEERRRRRRRRRR­RRRRRRRRRRRUUURRRRRRR

[zker666]

simply beautiful lightbulbs, can you beleive that here in the US they are trying to ban mercury vapor bulbs and high pressure sodium bulbs? Unbelievable, they may not be the most energy efficiency bulbs, but they have a hell of alot more lumens per watt than traditional incandescent bulbs

[m3sca1]

cool