70w son light

[KennySparky1984]

hey everyone, i have a small job to do for a mate (freebie ) and dont want to get more stuff then i need its basically a 70w son up on a galv pole, the lamp keeps going out the last few weeks and back on ect, but its got worse the last few nights, staying off for an hour at a time and back on then for few mins. im thinking its the bulb itself but could a ballast also be a factor in it ?


cheers

 

[KennySparky1984]

oh and no photocell on it, its on a switch

 

[Farmelectrics]

check connectoins if it was the lamp it wouldnt work at all coul be ballast might be cheaper getting new light though

 

[Top Cat]

If you have a good relationship with the merchants can't you book out lamp ballast etc and take back what you don't use?

Sound more like a lamp though.

 

[Rockingit]

Thinking of the hot restrike time / cooldown, might just be a loose connection somewhere. Start with the obvious things first!!!

 

[Darkwood]

Is it a low pressure sodium? or high pressure? they have different lamp failure characteristics, if low pressure then its possibly a loose wire, or faulty ballast but as the lamp is going through constant restrike the lamp may be damaged too, probably just as quick and cheap to bring spare fitting.
If high pressure lamp then when the lamp comes to the end of its life it can go into what is known as cycling caused by loss of sodium in the arc which means the maintaining voltage rises to try keep arc going but when you hit the voltage limit of the ballast it can no longer maintain the arc and fails, lamp cools down and cycle begins again. Lamps doing this should be replaced immediately as it damages the lifespan of the ballast, if it been cycling a long time it may have longer duration before restrike as the sodium depletes and lower internal pressure are required to cause restrike.

Low pressure sodium lamps just normally fail and wont try cycling but may just give low level glow.
High pressure sodium lamps may be the symptoms of the OP but can be caused by other issues.

 

[lamb]

its high pressure

 

[Darkwood]

its high pressure

Is this imformative or a speculated guess? .... lack of punctuation means your post holds little value.

 

[lamb]

sorry, SON is high pressure sodium (warm orange light, normally elliptical lamps), SOX is low pressure sodium (orange glow, long tubes). thats how I knew.

 

[ipf]

Sounds like the ignitor. Get a replacement lamp with internal ignitor.

 

[ipf]

sorry, SON is high pressure sodium (warm orange light, normally elliptical lamps), SOX is low pressure sodium (orange glow, long tubes). thats how I knew.

Son are tubular or elliptical.

 

[Darkwood]

Yes you are correct but its common now to use the terms LPS or HPS when mentioning son's hence i asked; if he said sox it goes without saying what it is but Son in itself dosn't mean high pressure.
With respect though it is highly likely that the OP has a HPS lamp.

 

[lamb]

yeah, hardly anybody fits SOX anymore, it is quite dated.

 

[ipf]

My socks fit OK ?

 

[KennySparky1984]

sorry guys yes its HPS i should have clarified. a smallish lamp edision. as far as im aware sox (LPS) are the longer lamps and very poor CRI.