I just had a thought and was wondering if it would work.
Determining when to replace your bulbs is always a question everyone faces. I just had a thought of a way to determine in my circumstance how to know when to replace the bulb but I don't know if it will work in practice.
When using an M80 Magnetic type ballast to drive a Single Ended (SE) Metal Halide (MH) bulb it overdrives the bulb. Each bulb is different.
Well.. here is my thinking and question. The question is, could a device like a Kill-a-Watt be a good way to determine when it is time to replace a bulb? The way MH bulbs work is they mix a "recipe" of different halides to get a desired color. Like mixing a bunch of paints together. Well, in the light bulb world certain "paints" get consumed at a much quicker rate than others. As an example, bulb Mfg will use something that gives off UV light, below purple, and mix it with green light in order to achieve Blue looking light. The lower the light the more energy it takes to create that light and it burns up faster. If UV burns up the fastest, and that falls outside the PAR spectrum, then PAR isn't a good way to measure bulb life because your PAR will not be really affected at first as the lower end of the spectrum burns up but the overall spectrum your tank is getting will be shifted more towards the greens from the blues.
So my thinking is, if the lower spectrum burns up quicker, does the bulb and ballast still drive the bulb as hard? Say a 20k 250w Radium bulb uses 335w of power new, would it use less power as it ages and burned up the lower spectrum first and then you can try and find a good point in wattage consumption to tell you when to replace the bulb. Unfortunately this only applies to a very small group of people that run these types of ballast. I don't think my idea would work at all with an electronic ballast.
Just curious if anyone has any comments on this either way, if it would work or not work. Maybe the ballast doesn't use less power as the bulb ages, I don't even know the answer to that.
Determining when to replace your bulbs is always a question everyone faces. I just had a thought of a way to determine in my circumstance how to know when to replace the bulb but I don't know if it will work in practice.
When using an M80 Magnetic type ballast to drive a Single Ended (SE) Metal Halide (MH) bulb it overdrives the bulb. Each bulb is different.
Well.. here is my thinking and question. The question is, could a device like a Kill-a-Watt be a good way to determine when it is time to replace a bulb? The way MH bulbs work is they mix a "recipe" of different halides to get a desired color. Like mixing a bunch of paints together. Well, in the light bulb world certain "paints" get consumed at a much quicker rate than others. As an example, bulb Mfg will use something that gives off UV light, below purple, and mix it with green light in order to achieve Blue looking light. The lower the light the more energy it takes to create that light and it burns up faster. If UV burns up the fastest, and that falls outside the PAR spectrum, then PAR isn't a good way to measure bulb life because your PAR will not be really affected at first as the lower end of the spectrum burns up but the overall spectrum your tank is getting will be shifted more towards the greens from the blues.
So my thinking is, if the lower spectrum burns up quicker, does the bulb and ballast still drive the bulb as hard? Say a 20k 250w Radium bulb uses 335w of power new, would it use less power as it ages and burned up the lower spectrum first and then you can try and find a good point in wattage consumption to tell you when to replace the bulb. Unfortunately this only applies to a very small group of people that run these types of ballast. I don't think my idea would work at all with an electronic ballast.
Just curious if anyone has any comments on this either way, if it would work or not work. Maybe the ballast doesn't use less power as the bulb ages, I don't even know the answer to that.
