Author Topic: Exploding mercury lamps  (Read 8520 times)
Solanaceae
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Re: Exploding mercury lamps « Reply #30 on: June 18, 2015, 06:05:30 PM » Author: Solanaceae
Sometimes linemen unknowingly put MH bulbs into MV fixtures and the MH bulbs are more vulnerable to explosion. Do they have any way of tagging streetlights to indicate lamp type like the US NEMA tags? (Blue is Mercury, yellow is HPS, red is MH, etc.)
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Re: Exploding mercury lamps « Reply #31 on: June 19, 2015, 02:29:08 AM » Author: Solanaceae
I also remember us boys in the elementary school days would kick or throw balls up at the lights and hit them and watch them change from bright wite to a brief flash of pink and back to white.  This was in the 2000s and before anyone can say the lanterns were MH, I clearly remember seeing bulb wrappers that said "MERCURY VAPOR LAMP" on them.
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Re: Exploding mercury lamps « Reply #32 on: June 19, 2015, 02:31:45 AM » Author: Ash
Sometimes we use just the same NEMA tags, sometimes plain text labels ("HPS 250W"), sometimes its a mess

It is especially a mess with small lanterns that tend to get the gear damaged by water ingress, and the gear is replaced with whats on hand and not allways the same as other lanterns in the row, so you can have a mix of 70W HPS + 125W Mercury, or 100W HPS + 150W HPS etc. Sometimes they indeed put in the wrong lamp

The most interesting failure i seen is from a 125W Mercury lamp used in a 100W MH lantern without removing the ignitor. The thing arced and melted the stem press of the outer, and blew clear off the stem. Now the frame with the arctube (arctube is intact) and some bits of glass are just loosely laying inside the outer and scratching off the phosphor. I didnt see that when it happened, just got the lamp & lantern when the entire place (8 lanterns) were replaced (with LED)



Here kids used to bang metal HPS poles and that would make the lamp go out and cycle
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