mercury vapor bulb replacement

[gissle]

I was recently given some HID lights with 400w mercury vapor bulbs in them. They don't seem very bright. I know they lose brightness with age and need to probably be replaced. My question that I can't find the answer for is can I put 400w metal halide bulbs in there place without a ballast change?

 

[Charles (in GA)]

What kind of fixtures are these? You say HID, which is generally regarded as Metal Halide. There are Metal Halide, Sodium, and Mercury. You cannot swap bulbs of one type into a fixture designed for another. Whatever is on the fixtures data plate is what you have to use.

Charles

 

[Vicegrip]

MV MH and SV are all HID. As was said read the data plate it will have something like M59 or the like on it. This will tell us what ballast you have. Most can run both but there are some core and coil ballasts that will fire MH only.

Change the Capacitor as well. They are cheap and are rated at 60,000 hours max. Caps should be changed after every three bulbs. An old cap will reduce light output and or color shift the light as well as shorten the bulb life.

 

[gissle]

Thanks for the replies. I will look and get the numbers posted tonight when I get back home. Good info on the capacitors I was not aware of that.

 

[gissle]

I just looked up the number on the ballast. It is a GE ballast with the number C785G102 stamped on it. Thanks for any help that is out there.

 

[Vicegrip]

there should be a data plate that has voltage and wattage. it should also have "use lamp type...." or the like. his plate or sticker should be somewhere on the case near the elec connector.