bucket175mv
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That Sola is going to be your only option for a magnetic that's closest to the 50w MV spec. Im actually surprised that's even available, all other manufacturers, GE, Advance/Philips, Sylvania have done away with magnetic 39w MH years ago. I personally would go with a 50w MH ballast, a bit more light out of the mercury lamp, as well as the option for you to switch to a MH lamp and instantly double the light if you ever needed more light. (a 39w medium base MH lamp is nearly impossible to find unless you want a reflector lamp)
I see what your saying and I will consider that as an option. I dont want to overdrive the lamp because it will be a step backwards to what I'm trying to achieve here as in it will be to bright for my application. If I used a F40T12 single lamp preheat ballast I think this will drive a 50w MV lamp to the brightness I'm after. Only problem is that those are even getting hard to find too. I currently have my local electrical supply store digging for me to locate some of these hard to find items. Advance 71A1800 ballast, Sylvania 69452 bulb. Wish me luck! |
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bucket175mv
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Back in 2005 I worked with a contractor that replaced a few bad ballasts in 50w MV recessed cans, those shiny new Advance 50w mercury ballasts cost just $15.00 each from Graybar, kinda makes you sick doesn't it...  I hate bulb/ballast bans
To think that Mercury Vapor bulbs, ballasts and gear was avalaible not even a decade ago, it does kinda make me sick lol. I'm holding out that Canadian electrical suppliers will still have an NOS 50w Mercury Vapor bulbs and ballasts. Yeah whats up with this stupid MV bulb/ballast ban anyway? |
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bucket175mv
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How would I go about making the wiring connections to a medium base socket using a F40T12 single lamp ballast to drive a 50w MV lamp? Thanks  |
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funkybulb
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| I would not recomend 40 watt T12 ballast cause that mercury lamp wants .57o- 600 mA current and those magnetic 40 watt fluorescent gear is 430- to 460 mA
u will under drive the lamp.
50 watt MV ballast does show up on ebay once an while
The only ballast that would work good 39 watt MH ballast, It possable to make your own ballast out of
Transformers, i think trick is to provide enough current
And being loaded down enough where to point it regulate the current. Lamp arc volts is 95 volts
Jeremy
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No LED gadgets, spins too slowly. Gotta love preheat and MV. let the lights keep my meter spinning.
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BlueHalide
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| I agree, stay away from F40T12 ballasts, unless you can find one rated for 1-lamp, and rated at full power (40w only, not the "will also operate 34w lamps" type). Problem is, those are nearly as difficult to find as an actual 50w MV ballast. Most magnetic F40T12 ballasts out there are 2-lamp reduced-wattage (40w and 34w lamps) which technically you could run a single MV lamp on, just capping off the other leads, but the MV lamp will be significantly underdriven, and that 8-1/2" ballast isn't going to fit in a bucket light.
Ide keep looking for an actual HID transformer, the 39w or 50w MH ballast would work, and if you look around long enough you might come across a 50w MV ballast. Ebay and Craigslist are good sources. Building materials surplus stores, and restores are also good sources. The key is not to look for just the ballast itself, look for entire fixtures removed from service, then remove the ballast from it. Nearly all of my ballasts have come out of fixtures discontinued from service. Nearly 100% of all 50w mercury installations were outdoor post lights and recessed cans in exterior building soffits/entranceways.
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bucket175mv
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I would not recomend 40 watt T12 ballast cause that mercury lamp wants .57o- 600 mA current and those magnetic 40 watt fluorescent gear is 430- to 460 mA
u will under drive the lamp.
50 watt MV ballast does show up on ebay once an while
The only ballast that would work good 39 watt MH ballast, It possable to make your own ballast out of
Transformers, i think trick is to provide enough current
And being loaded down enough where to point it regulate the current. Lamp arc volts is 95 volts
Jeremy
I would love to make my own ballast but I think thats way in over my head.
I dont mind using a F40T12 ballast if it slightly underdrives the MV lamp as I dont want to have this to bright when done.
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bucket175mv
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I agree, stay away from F40T12 ballasts, unless you can find one rated for 1-lamp, and rated at full power (40w only, not the "will also operate 34w lamps" type). Problem is, those are nearly as difficult to find as an actual 50w MV ballast. Most magnetic F40T12 ballasts out there are 2-lamp reduced-wattage (40w and 34w lamps) which technically you could run a single MV lamp on, just capping off the other leads, but the MV lamp will be significantly underdriven, and that 8-1/2" ballast isn't going to fit in a bucket light.
Ide keep looking for an actual HID transformer, the 39w or 50w MH ballast would work, and if you look around long enough you might come across a 50w MV ballast. Ebay and Craigslist are good sources. Building materials surplus stores, and restores are also good sources. The key is not to look for just the ballast itself, look for entire fixtures removed from service, then remove the ballast from it. Nearly all of my ballasts have come out of fixtures discontinued from service. Nearly 100% of all 50w mercury installations were outdoor post lights and recessed cans in exterior building soffits/entranceways.
I see what your saying now. Single lamp F40T12 ballast is a tough find and if I cannot fit into the tight space of a NEMA head then whats the point lol. I like your idea to locate old fixtures and remove said ballast. I'm trying to think of what a recessed can fixture looks like. Would post lights with the 16" or so globe on top and about 10 or so feet high the ones you are talking about? |
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Ash
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BlueHalide
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| Yes, the pic Ash posted is a perfect example, the company I use to work for that did lighting retrofits removed the 50w and 100w MV versions of those by the hundreds, 26w and 42w PL cans took their place. Back then (early 2000's) never had I thought mercury fixtures and ballasts would be banned in just a few short years, im kicking myself for not having saved just a few of those. The post (white globe) lights were typically 100w, but I remember a few gated communities and subdivisions that used 50w mercs, the ballasts were almost always exclusively those cylindrical post-line potted ballasts, though some used the standard ballasts mounted in the fixture directly under the lampholder.
If the removed fixtures were still in good shape and operational, the retrofit company would often sell them to a restore, or construction surplus outlet rather than just throwing them in the dumpster. That's where you want to be looking. The building materials restore here is Builders Discount. Where ever you live im sure youll have some version. Occasionally Salvation Army has this stuff too, and those are everywhere
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bucket175mv
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| Hey thanks for all the tips and help. I would really like to find a 50w MV ballast here in my town from an old fixture....the hunt is on!
I have located 50w clear MV lamps for around $25-35 canadain dollars wich is ok I guess considering how hard they are to find and I did find a Standard products 35/39w MH magnetic ballast but OMG they want $80-160 canadain for one!! That pretty much puts a halt to my 50w MV mini bucket light project.
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Ash
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| Back to fluorescent ballasts then
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bucket175mv
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Back to fluorescent ballasts then
I would like to but others have recommended I shouldn't. A F40T12 single lamp is probably the best option if any right? |
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Ash
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| If you can get up to the correct current with fluorescent ballasts, i dont really see why it won't be ok....
Just may happen that you won't be able to find 1 ballast that gives the right current, and will have to connect 2 identical ones in parallel or such (then you actually want the ballasts to be of weaker current, as you get double the current by using 2 ballasts in parallel)
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bucket175mv
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I have an old fluorescent F40 Single lamp black light fixture that has a rapid start 30/40w ballast, could I use this? It has a lable saying line current=.93A and its old lol.  |
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Medved
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| The line curent does not tell much, important is the secondary lamp arc current.
Because rated for both 30 and 40W, the arc current would be somewhere below 0.35A (both F30 and F40 have the same arc voltage of 108V, so present the same load for the ballast), so way too low for the MV lamp, it would operate on just barely 30W even in the most optimistic case when assuming the full mercury dose eaporates. In reality it would be even lower due to the lower arc voltage.
A "full power" F40 ballast operates at 0.43A, that means about 36W to the MV: With horizontal burning position it used to be barely sufficient to fully evaporate the mercury (the gravity pulls the mercury from the colder electrode area to the warmer center section, so it is able to overcome the low arc voltage, so low power saturated vapor state), with vertical burning it still makes troubles (the mercury pool resides in the colder electrode area, so it get stuck in the saturated vapor mode).
You may try it, but when the 0.43A was already marginal, I would be skeptical about any success...
Normally the MV couldbe dimmed in such way, but it should be operated on the full power the first 15 minutes after ignition to ensure it warms up and so fully evaporates the mercury dose. But that would need some means of (initial) lamp power boost just for the lamp warmup (second ballast of the same type, initially conected parallel and disconnected by timer or an arc voltage detector, when the arc voltage exceeds about 70V).
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No more selfballasted c***
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