HIDLad001
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Alex - a fan of Jefferson Electric ballasts
 
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| I want to build an area light that uses a 175W mercury vapor and a 300-500W halogen tube for ballasting. I have seen it done before, and self-ballasted lamps operate similar to this. But is there any way I can do it on 120V? Will I need a transformer to step it up?
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HID Fixtures should stay HID, but I think LED is fine too.
Any new photos are taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35!
Local power is 120/240VAC 60Hz, TV is NTSC 480i 59.94, DTV is ATSC 1.0 and simulcast ATSC 3.0.
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sol
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| I believe this is only possible on mains above 220V. You could consider self-ballasted mercury vapour, which has both in one envelope but it is less fun than building your own. The arc tube in those is not standard as it has to strike on 120V mains.
Regarding a step up transformer, I suppose it could work but it would likely require 220-240V incandescent lamps.
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HIDLad001
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Alex - a fan of Jefferson Electric ballasts
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| For the transformer, I would need to know how much my setup draws, and then calculate the amperage using Ohm's law. Luckily, I have a 240V socket in the workshop, so its shouldn't be hard to find out that information.
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Logged
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If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it
HID Fixtures should stay HID, but I think LED is fine too.
Any new photos are taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35!
Local power is 120/240VAC 60Hz, TV is NTSC 480i 59.94, DTV is ATSC 1.0 and simulcast ATSC 3.0.
-Using Lighting-Gallery since 2022-
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WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
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| However, you will need an even higher mains voltage like at least 380v if you want to resistively ballast North American 1000w H36 mercury vapor lamps and 700w H35 mercury vapor lamps using incandescent lamps as the ballast.
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
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HIDLad001
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Alex - a fan of Jefferson Electric ballasts
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However, you will need an even higher mains voltage like at least 380v if you want to resistively ballast North American 1000w H36 mercury vapor lamps and 700w H35 mercury vapor lamps using incandescent lamps as the ballast.
I have no plan in using those wattages. I will only be using low wattages, like 175W. |
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Logged
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If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it
HID Fixtures should stay HID, but I think LED is fine too.
Any new photos are taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35!
Local power is 120/240VAC 60Hz, TV is NTSC 480i 59.94, DTV is ATSC 1.0 and simulcast ATSC 3.0.
-Using Lighting-Gallery since 2022-
|
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
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HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
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| It is a true fact that most HID ballasts in North America actually do contain transformers in them because most HID lamps cannot reliably run on plain 120v mains using a simple choke ballast alone except for North American low wattage high pressure sodium lamps.
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Logged
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
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