×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Sensing of Lamp vs. Ballast Failure (MH)

Sensing of Lamp vs. Ballast Failure (MH)

Sensing of Lamp vs. Ballast Failure (MH)

(OP)
Is anyone aware of any good/feasible method to sense lamp failures and ballast failures for metal-halide fixtures (sized anywhere from 70w to 1000w), including discrimination between which one has failed?

I've heard rumors that a CT in the input of the ballast may be sufficient, either to measure ballast input current magnitude or phase angle.  I've heard that two CT's may be required, one on the input and output of the ballast.  I've heard that neither method might work.  And I've heard that a capacitor failure could falsely read as a lamp failure.

Does anyone have experience with this?  Does anyone know of vendors that can provide such a monitoring system?  Is anyone aware of ballasts which come with internal cicuitry to alarm on ballast vs. lamp failure?  Are there any other potential solutions that perhaps I'm overlooking?

RE: Sensing of Lamp vs. Ballast Failure (MH)

peebee;

I am not lighitng expert. But have looked after plants in my past life.

Since I did not see any response, here is my 'alternative'.

How about keeping a spare fixcure of its kind, or few sapre ballasts and lamps of each kind in your installtion.
Then try changing a lamp first (simpler of the two),if it works then lamp is bad. Failing that change ballast, place old lamp back in, if it works then ballast is bad. or Both.

If this is in warehouse type setup, you can simply chang out the defective fixture and play around with malfunctioning one in the shop.


I am sure you have tried this or tired of this:).

Good luck.


RE: Sensing of Lamp vs. Ballast Failure (MH)

(OP)
Thanks, rbulsara.  But yes, I'd thought of that one. . . .

The problem with this installation is that the ballasts are remote mounted, and it takes quite a bit of time to travel from the fixture to the ballast.  It would be a tremendous maintenance savings if they knew right where to go to get the fixture working again.

Stragely, this would seem to be a simple enough system.  But apparently it's not quite as simple as it seems.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources