Mercury Vapor Wiring

[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

When I was at Home Depot yesterday, I saw that they had started carrying mercury vapor bulbs again but they still don't have the fixtures for them. Is the wiring as simple as attaching a cord with the plug to the proper ballast and hooking the ballast to a mogul base?

If it is that simple and I can find a ballast, I might upgrade from my expensive self ballasted bulbs that I keep breaking. Regular mv bulbs cost about half of what I have been spending for self ballasted mv and someone here said that they emit more uv than self ballasted.

[ckswank]

Don't know anything about wiring & I respect electricity too much to experiment. I've also heard the same on self-ballasted vs. regular MV bulbs with mogul bases. I'd like to ad a question as well. Can ballasted fixtures for high pressure sodium bulbs be used for MV bulbs, as long as the wattage matches the bulb?

Charlie

[evra]

Yeah Rev., it's almost that simple. Many electrical supply houses sell metal halide ballast kits, which is basically a transformer and a capacitor that is already wired together. You cut an extension cord into 2 pieces, and then take the piece with the male end and connect it to the wires going into the transformer, and then the other piece you connect to the wires going out of the capacitor, which you then connect to the mogul socket. And that's it. And then you ground the incoming wires and that's pretty much it.

Charlie, I'm not sure about high pressure sodium, but metal halide ballasts are definitely compatible with Merc. Vapor lamps. Metal halide lamps in their own right are very effective at attracting insects as well.

[ckswank]

Thanks for the quick reply. I think most fixtures are supposed to be compatible with both, but will definitely stick to the metal halide to be safe. I bought a 400 watt MV bulb a couple of years ago on Ebay, but haven't got a fixture to try it in. Bought a 4 lamp metal halide work light last summer at Home Depot for around $55.00, but have yet to try it either. Each lamp is 300 watts for a total of 1200 watts & they have individual switches if you don't need to use them all. I think they have a clear UV filter over each lamp which I would have to remove for attracting insects. I'll let you know how it works if I can get my butt in gear!

Charlie

[arrowhead]

I believe I posted this question befre but drew no replies. Are the standard base MV bulbs the same or as good as the mogul base types (like seen on ebay) and are they as good as the self-ballested "pro" models like the scientific house offer? Thanks for any info.

[ckswank]

It probably has to do with the amount of UV light being generated. I had one occasion where I was using my 160 W self ballasted standard base bulb and another person was using a 400 W ballasted mogul base bulb. The 400 watt bulb was definitely giving off more of a blue tinted light, whereas mine was giving off more of a white light. There didn't seem to be an appreciable difference in the numbers being drawn to each, but the 400 watt bulb did have some edge. Is there a relatively inexpensive meter than can measure both intensity & wavelength?

[arrowhead]

I don't know of such a device, but thanks for the info. Hopefully I can save up the funds for one of the more expensive pro models by next season. Best wishes, arrowhead

[ckswank]

Correction on my post about the work light that I purchased. There are only two fixtures instead of four.
Each fixture holds two 300 watt bulbs. They are "halogen" bulbs, not "metal halide". The reviews on the Home Depot website are mixed as well. Of course, they were written by people interested in a work light, not insect collecting. Hope I can get it together in the next few days & report back.

Charlie