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Industrial Lighting Bulb Question

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SamV View Drop Down
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Joined: 21 October 2008
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SamV Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Industrial Lighting Bulb Question
    Posted: 14 July 2014 at 9:48pm
Hey all,

So just pulled out a bulb from one of our lighting fixtures and it's a GE HR400 DX33 / 40 Mercury Vapor bulb. It chucks out 22k lumens and TLC direct are chucking them out at £10 a bulb atm. The current ones are about 20 years old and of the 12 in the room 4 are now dead.

Now I'm wondering if there's any other types of bulbs that might be a drop in replacement as no one is a fan of the current green hue that these give off. Would new ones be less green in colour? Would the fixtures take Metal Halide or Sodium and if so would they be any better or be equally as blue/yellow? Any other trade offs?

Cheers,
Sam
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SamV View Drop Down
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Joined: 21 October 2008
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SamV Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 July 2014 at 9:49pm
Could someone delete this please and I'll post in the lighting section.
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csg View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote csg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 July 2014 at 8:30pm
Mercury vapour ballasts are simply a choke and possibly ( but not normally) a PF capacitor. no ignitor is required as MV lamps have an auxiliary ignition electrode.

As there wont be a ignitor in the fixture, a metal halide lamp or high pressure sodium lamp wont start - 400W lamps are never fitted with internal starters.

The thing with mercury vapour lamps is that they rarely die, just get dimmer and greener. As they seldom go out altogether, they generally get left, with people assuming that the greenish light is what you get.

The fact that you have several dead lamps probably means that the rest are well past their sell by date. New MV lamps usually have a slightly warmer output than metal halide lamps, so should be fine.

I would stick with the MV lamps, they are cheap and have a very long service life before they go greenish, 20,000 hours is common. Just make sure they are mercury fluorescent lamps ( the opaque white ones) and they will give you a good clean white light.
“The fact is this is about identifying what we do best and finding more ways of doing less of it better”
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