Do sodium lamps need to be burned in?

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Mark R

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Oct 9, 1999
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I put together a sodium lamp as a gift for my mom, having assembled it out of bits from ebay.

I used a 150 W dual-ended sodium lamp, and a standard 150 W halide ballast with electronic ignitor.

This setup originally came with a 150 W dual-ended halide lamp, which worked great. So I swapped the halide out for the sodium.

First time I powered it up, it was really dim, and even after 15 minutes warm up was still really dim. Checking it with my plug-in wattmeter, I found that the lamp was taking way too many Amps and way too few Watts (which is what happens with a stone cold lamp, except it wasn't cold, it had been running for 15 minutes).

I "rebooted" it a few times, with the same result. Really feeble light, power usage of 75-80 W, and a stupid current of 2.7 A, with the ballast buzzing like a hive of bees.

Rather dissappointed, I left it on and went out for a couple of hours. When I came back, the light was crazy bright. The Watts had gone up to about 170 W, and the Amps had gone down to about 1.7 A (both of these are normal for this ballast, and match the results for the halide bulb).

After that, when I power it up, the lamp seems to warm up really quickly - reaching full brightness, and normal Amps/Watts in about 4 minutes.

Is this normal, or did I get some sort of bulb with a strange defect?
 

BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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IIRC, sodium vapor lights DO have a burn-in period. I know metal halide bulbs do.
 

Mixolydian

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Nov 7, 2011
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gilramirez.net
150 HPS lamps come in 2 different voltages, 55V and 100V (which works at 120 and 240v respectively). If using a metal halide ballast, you'd need to use a 100V lamp, as metal halide systems are inherently 240 volts.
 

BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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Ah hell...I missed this part:

I used a 150 W dual-ended sodium lamp, and a standard 150 W halide ballast with electronic ignitor.

This setup originally came with a 150 W dual-ended halide lamp, which worked great. So I swapped the halide out for the sodium.

Not all SV bulbs are compatible with MH ballasts.

From a lighting thread at Reef Central:

250w example:

Probe start: ANSI: M58, core, capacitor
Pulse start: ANSI: M138, core, capacitor, ignitor
HQI: ANSI: M80, core, capacitor, ignitor
EYE: ANSI: H37, core, capacitor, actually a mercury vapor ballast
Electronic: ANSI: none, metal box with wires

probe start will run american bulbs with ignitors built into the bulbs like coralife and venture bulbs. some german and euro bulbs will run fine on these, but without an ignitor, the bulb struggles to light and bulb life may be decreased. also reliabilty goes down.

pulse start will run the german/euro bulbs (ushio, AB, radium, etc.) these bulbs don't have built in ignitors, so the ballast has the ignitor wired into the circuit. the ignitor provides the high voltages needed to fire the bulb. you can run probe start bulbs on these ballasts, but the two ignitors may try to fight each other and possibly cause a fire.

HQI ballasts are similar to pulse starts in their wiring and ability to run bulbs. the output is a little higher which is meant to run the double-ended bulbs (commonly called HQI bulbs). people run mogul bulbs on these and they run a little hotter and brighter because they are being overdriven. this in turn shortens the life of the bulbs.

EYE ballasts are mercury vapor ballasts. they are similar to a probe start ballast, but the only bulb you can run on these are Iwasaki 6500K bulbs (because these are actually MV bulbs, not MH bulbs like most think). the ballast will damage MH bulbs if you try to run one on it.

Electronic. ahhh, the great electronics. these will run any bulb at the rated wattage: probe start, pulse start, iwasakis, DE (double ended-HQI). if you think you might change your mind in the future, get an electronic. you can change bulbs to whatever you want and not have to worry about the ballast being the wrong type. electronics run cooler (a magnetic MH ballast will burn your hand if you touch the coil after it's been running for awhile). they also use less energy.

Additional info:

175watt:
Probe start: ANSI: M57, core, capacitor
Pulse start: ANSI: M137, core, capacitor, ignitor
Electronic: ANSI: none, metal box with wires

400watt:
Probe start: ANSI: M59, core, capacitor
Pulse start: ANSI: M135, core, capacitor, ignitor
HQI: ANSI: SON AGRO, core, capacitor, ignitor (this is actually a 430w HPS ballast used primarily in hydroponics)
EYE: ANSI: H33, core, capacitor, actually a mercury vapor ballast
Electronic: ANSI: none, metal box with wires

To better answer your question, please provide the information for both ballast and bulb.
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The bulb is an Osram Nav-TS 150W rated at 1.8A, 95 V (for external igniter).

Ballast is a Tridonic OMBIS 150W (metal halide/sodium ballast) rated at 1.8 A. A separate electronic superimposed pulse igniter (Tridonic ZRM-8ES) is present.

Original bulb was an Osram HQI-150/D rated at 1.8A, 95 V.
 

BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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The bulb is an Osram Nav-TS 150W rated at 1.8A, 95 V (for external igniter).

Ballast is a Tridonic OMBIS 150W (metal halide/sodium ballast) rated at 1.8 A. A separate electronic superimposed pulse igniter (Tridonic ZRM-8ES) is present.

Original bulb was an Osram HQI-150/D rated at 1.8A, 95 V.

The specs on the ballast are sketchy at best, but it LOOKS like the bulb is meant to run on Metal Halide ballasts.
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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The specs on the ballast are sketchy at best, but it LOOKS like the bulb is meant to run on Metal Halide ballasts.

Yeah. Not terribly much info on the ballast, but it does say "suitable for pulse start HPS" on it.

And the lamp is supposed to be pulse start, so I guess they're all fully compatible.

Anyway, now that the bulb has had a few hours of burn-in, it does look as if it's working fine. So I guess, the answer is that HPS do need burning in before they will reach full power.
 

Mark R

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Oct 9, 1999
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Is this a grow op thread?

Very good guess.

Mom keeps hassling me asking where to buy "daylight" lamps, so that she can get her orchids and "rubber plant" to flower.

Anyway, the type with the blue glass are a) a waste of effort, and b) banned - so that's not going to work. Also, a quick google search suggests that sodium is much better for flowering than daylight, hence the reason to get a sodium lamp.

I've got a few HIDs at home, so she's getting an HID "grow lamp" for Chistmas. However, I've never used sodium before, so wasn't expecting the bulb to need much burning in. Most of my HQI bulbs have been obtained used, so I've not had to burn them in.

Actually, going back to Boomer's post. Some of the information in there isn't right (or, rather, it's so vague that it's misleading).

I use several Iwasaki EYE (color-arc) 6500K lamps. These are definitely MH (not mercury) and need MH pulse-start ballasts. They do not run (at all) on mercury ballasts.

The confusion may come because EYE do a range of MH-like bulbs (called clean-ace which are available in 6500K) which are retrofits for mercury ballast systems. These directly replace mercury bulbs and produce a much better quality of light.

IMG_3484.jpg

Here's a pic of the lamp undergoing testing. The pic doesn't really capture how bright this thing is. Those little halogen downlighters are 50W for comparison.
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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Very good guess.

Mom keeps hassling me asking where to buy "daylight" lamps, so that she can get her orchids and "rubber plant" to flower.

Anyway, the type with the blue glass are a) a waste of effort, and b) banned - so that's not going to work. Also, a quick google search suggests that sodium is much better for flowering than daylight, hence the reason to get a sodium lamp.

I've got a few HIDs at home, so she's getting an HID "grow lamp" for Chistmas. However, I've never used sodium before, so wasn't expecting the bulb to need much burning in. Most of my HQI bulbs have been obtained used, so I've not had to burn them in.

Actually, going back to Boomer's post. Some of the information in there isn't right (or, rather, it's so vague that it's misleading).

I use several Iwasaki EYE (color-arc) 6500K lamps. These are definitely MH (not mercury) and need MH pulse-start ballasts. They do not run (at all) on mercury ballasts.

The confusion may come because EYE do a range of MH-like bulbs (called clean-ace which are available in 6500K) which are retrofits for mercury ballast systems. These directly replace mercury bulbs and produce a much better quality of light.

The information in that RC post is a few years old, but it was VERY accurate when it was first posted. (2003) It's also geared toward lighting for reef tanks rather than grow lights, but the principles and lighting products should all be the same. (different lighting spectrums would be the only real differences as long as the same ballast/bulb type are used)

It looks like Eye has added some metal halide ballasts to their product line as well.
 
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