Author Topic: HPS Lamp Startup  (Read 1379 times)
flyoffacliff
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HPS Lamp Startup « on: September 18, 2020, 07:44:19 PM » Author: flyoffacliff
2 HPS streetlights outside my new house.

One stays blue for a long time then warms up.
The other does this. Green, then orange then green then orange again. Is it near EOL? It never cycles.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/h8o5SDposxoAUP3U9
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MikeT1982
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Re: HPS Lamp Startup « Reply #1 on: September 18, 2020, 08:44:08 PM » Author: MikeT1982
Many years ago I noticed the exact same thing down at an intersection where I was stuck at a traffic light right during start up of about six fixtures, no two are the same. I’m not sure if the age of the bulb has to do with it or if it was design variation. I’m also noticing with my SOX wallpacks , That one starts up much quicker than the other. Makes me wonder if there is less sodium in one, or is the sodium closer to the hot electrodes… One fixture has 12 cycles the slower to start the new bulb I put in last night to replace the defective one starts up rather quickly. Time will tell if the sodium settles away from the electrodes and therefore takes longer that’s what I’m thinking it Hass to drop down to the bottom of the U because from the factory it’s splattered all over the place.  The bulbs appear identical same batch etc. It almost seems like HID lamps are each their own personality. With HPS, the fixture that I had for 30 years, the original generic bulb was much slower than the lumalux Sylvania. A different tiny of yellow as well. And a different color pattern. I recall back when my dad kept saltwater tanks and there were two metal halide lights, the one on the left would start up slightly different than the one on the right. But they would end up the same color kind of like my wall packs here if you came back in a half hour or miss start up you have no idea.Maybe it’s the natural situation that upon shut down the vapors tend to condense at random spots and if they are closer to the electrode they would be up in about quicker than their counterparts metal. That’s all I can really think of I could be totally off track though.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2020, 08:46:48 PM by MikeT1982 » Logged
flyoffacliff
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Re: HPS Lamp Startup « Reply #2 on: September 18, 2020, 08:48:29 PM » Author: flyoffacliff
Yeah it's kind of cool. I think HID lamps in general do this. It makes seeing group startups cool!
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dor123
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Re: HPS Lamp Startup « Reply #3 on: September 18, 2020, 11:48:53 PM » Author: dor123
HPS starts up bluish when it is near EOL, or if it is of the non-cycling type.
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fluorescent lover 40
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Re: HPS Lamp Startup « Reply #4 on: September 19, 2020, 12:08:15 AM » Author: fluorescent lover 40
Some older HPS (mainly GE HPS lamps here in the US) lamps had more mercury in them leading to the startup being an awesome blue-purpleish color.
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dor123
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Re: HPS Lamp Startup « Reply #5 on: September 19, 2020, 12:32:17 AM » Author: dor123
Regular HPS lamps have excess of sodium-mercury amalgam, and as the lamp ages, more mercury vaporize resulting in bluish color.
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I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

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flyoffacliff
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Re: HPS Lamp Startup « Reply #6 on: September 21, 2020, 12:33:20 AM » Author: flyoffacliff
Not sure if I've ever seen a non-cycling lamp. Maybe they're not used in this area?

It seems like sometimes they just cycle for a couple weeks and then go out, but sometimes, they cycle for YEARS. There's one I used to stop at every few months and record the cycle time on a stopwatch to see how much it changed.

Figure the constant cycling would kill the electrodes really fast, like with preheat fluorescent.

I remember a master electrician telling me no two are ever alike.
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