T
Travis Evans
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
I've done some searching a number of times in the past on exactly how
adverse an effect on life frequent starting has on various (otherwise
properly installed/operated) types of lamps, general-purpose-lighting
HID lamps in particular (or more specifically, HPM, HPS, and MH lamps
around the 50-100 watt range; the kind usually available in common "home
center" stores in the US), but without much luck. I've seen at least
one website or document say that HPM lamps are the most tolerant of
frequent starting, but no cited sources or any actual figures.
As a hobby/for fun, I have some fixtures/lumiaires of these types
intended to be used as dawn-to-dusk "security lights" that I instead
switch manually and use indoors in my home. As such, the "operating
hours to starts" ratio tends to be quite a bit lower than the 10 that
HID lamps are typically spec'd at. I have no way of knowing how low
exactly, but I very roughly estimate the average is probably somewhere
in the range of maybe 40 minutes to around 4 hours per start, give or
take. The thing is, I haven't been able to get an idea of how much I
really need to worry about how often the lamps are started, if at all.
The most heavily used light is a 100-watt MH (ANSI M90). The ballast,
ignitor, and original lamp, used almost daily for approaching 3 years
now, still appear to be holding up well to this pattern of usage so far.
A 50-watt HPS lamp used over a slightly longer period of time still
works well, and a Philips H38 phosphored HPM lamp (used somewhat less,
though I'm unsure by how much) also seems fine. Finally, my 70-watt HPS
and 70-watt MH units still work, though I haven't yet had these two for
very long. All of these are on conventional iron ballasts (with
ignitors for the HPS and MH ones), except for the 50-watt HPS Lights of
America fixture which instead appears to use some sort of electronic
ballast circuit on a board (mostly discrete components with maybe an IC
or two).
On the other hand, I've had a clear H38 mercury (the one shipped with my
particular corresponding luminaire) mysteriously no longer start without
warning after operating apparently perfectly normally the last 2-3
years, despite almost certainly not having had 6000 hours, if half that;
a couple of HPS ignitors fail prematurely (though this perhaps was just
a bad manufacturing run as both were installed in fixtures bought the
same day from the same store (one died on the very first startup; the
one in the exchanged unit lasted about half a year); and a dirt-cheap
Lights of America 50-watt HPS luminaire's ballast electronics fail after
around 9 months [though in my experience, this seems to be the rule
rather than the exception with LOA products, so no big surprise there
], though the lamp itself was fine (the original lamp and
replacement luminaire, since reinstalled outside the house and returned
to dusk-to-dawn operation, currently still work after a little over 2
additional years). But as with various CFLs that I've seen fail early
over the years, I just have no way of knowing whether or not failures
like these could have directly or indirectly had anything to do with
number of starts.
Does anyone have any experience with using these kinds of lamps on
fairly short cycles like this over their entire lifespan [and perhaps,
whether the end-of-life behavior tends to be any different from the
"normal" 10 or more hours per start usage, just to satisfy my curiosity
]?
adverse an effect on life frequent starting has on various (otherwise
properly installed/operated) types of lamps, general-purpose-lighting
HID lamps in particular (or more specifically, HPM, HPS, and MH lamps
around the 50-100 watt range; the kind usually available in common "home
center" stores in the US), but without much luck. I've seen at least
one website or document say that HPM lamps are the most tolerant of
frequent starting, but no cited sources or any actual figures.
As a hobby/for fun, I have some fixtures/lumiaires of these types
intended to be used as dawn-to-dusk "security lights" that I instead
switch manually and use indoors in my home. As such, the "operating
hours to starts" ratio tends to be quite a bit lower than the 10 that
HID lamps are typically spec'd at. I have no way of knowing how low
exactly, but I very roughly estimate the average is probably somewhere
in the range of maybe 40 minutes to around 4 hours per start, give or
take. The thing is, I haven't been able to get an idea of how much I
really need to worry about how often the lamps are started, if at all.
The most heavily used light is a 100-watt MH (ANSI M90). The ballast,
ignitor, and original lamp, used almost daily for approaching 3 years
now, still appear to be holding up well to this pattern of usage so far.
A 50-watt HPS lamp used over a slightly longer period of time still
works well, and a Philips H38 phosphored HPM lamp (used somewhat less,
though I'm unsure by how much) also seems fine. Finally, my 70-watt HPS
and 70-watt MH units still work, though I haven't yet had these two for
very long. All of these are on conventional iron ballasts (with
ignitors for the HPS and MH ones), except for the 50-watt HPS Lights of
America fixture which instead appears to use some sort of electronic
ballast circuit on a board (mostly discrete components with maybe an IC
or two).
On the other hand, I've had a clear H38 mercury (the one shipped with my
particular corresponding luminaire) mysteriously no longer start without
warning after operating apparently perfectly normally the last 2-3
years, despite almost certainly not having had 6000 hours, if half that;
a couple of HPS ignitors fail prematurely (though this perhaps was just
a bad manufacturing run as both were installed in fixtures bought the
same day from the same store (one died on the very first startup; the
one in the exchanged unit lasted about half a year); and a dirt-cheap
Lights of America 50-watt HPS luminaire's ballast electronics fail after
around 9 months [though in my experience, this seems to be the rule
rather than the exception with LOA products, so no big surprise there
], though the lamp itself was fine (the original lamp and
replacement luminaire, since reinstalled outside the house and returned
to dusk-to-dawn operation, currently still work after a little over 2
additional years). But as with various CFLs that I've seen fail early
over the years, I just have no way of knowing whether or not failures
like these could have directly or indirectly had anything to do with
number of starts.
Does anyone have any experience with using these kinds of lamps on
fairly short cycles like this over their entire lifespan [and perhaps,
whether the end-of-life behavior tends to be any different from the
"normal" 10 or more hours per start usage, just to satisfy my curiosity
]?