Old dimmed and greened out GE 100w A23 /DX merc. It's around the same brightness as a 40w incandescent. It got pretty dimmed out after around 20 years of operation. The phosphor also got slightly burned.
They've already replaced almost all of these mercs, the ones outdoors got replaced with a mix of MH and LED and the indoor ones got replaced with fluorescent wraparounds.
Hey, they're not in use anymore so I say fair game.
BTW, I got three old 250W /DX MV lamps as an early Christmas gift! One (the oldest, a late 60s-early 70s Sylvania with girder acr tube frame) broke at the base when I rinsed it (wasn't hot water or anything, the glass just gave out and sheared at the neck for some reason). Not sure if it still worked or not. The other two, a Sylvania clearbander and a 80s ED28 GE, did not light on my 100W MV M-250A. Not sure if they're just hard to start or if they're dead. Even though I was trying the 250W lamps on a 100W ballast, being MV, they should have lit (just never would have warmed up much at all). I've lit a 400W merc off a 100W MV ballast, though the lamp never made it out of the pink phase lol. Probably bad for the lamp but I didn't run it long. They do make dimmable HID ballasts, so a 400W merc could run a lower power (they use capacitors to adjust current to the lamp) but it requires the lamp to run at full brightness for at least a half-hour or so before the lamps can be dimmed since otherwise the electrodes would sputter and the lamp would not last long at all. Of course, even if run for at least a half hour, a conventional dimmer can't be used to dim HIDs (unless you configure the extra capacitor(s) in; I'm not sure how to do that).
I assume you do not have a 250w MV/MH ballast then? Try a 175w...or if it seems dead 400w. Or something PSMH...from what I've read the older Sylvania MVs get hard to start but still work...they just need a "kick" or "shock" to get fired up again.
A few years ago I had a conventional 175w yardblaster set up with a regular Leviton (or maybe it was Lutron; don't remember) rotary TRIAC incandescent dimmer (the kind that dims the light over the kitchen table). It actually worked with at least moderate success! I found if you fired it up at full power you had to dim slowly though, presumably to allow the arc to drop voltage/current/pressure without going into what I've dubbed "starting probe glow mode" and hot-restriking. If fired up at a low setting it took forever to "warm up" but eventually if there was a voltage dip it would go into restrike mode...so it was warming up at least somewhat. BTW the mercury would condense at the bottom of the arc tube, below the electrode opposite the starting probe one.
There's a couple vids on YouTube a fellow lighting enthusiast (...) I've also found helps a lot (I did it, as was also done in the second YT vid I've linked to) is having an incandescent also running off that dimmer...I think it's because those things need a resistive load as opposed to inductive (ballast and arc).
I actually do have a 250W MH ballast but it's in one of the Holophane highbays in the shed. The highbay's wired up to a cord so all I have to do is bring the highbay inside and try the lamps then. If they don't strike on a 250W MH ballast I'll try a 250W HPS with the igniter connected. Maybe the starting probes are dead. One Sylvania and one GE. Actually have two Sylvanias but one has a broken envelope now so regardless of whether is works, it's no good. The arc tubes on all three are pretty blackened though so they probably just don't work anymore.
Interesting info on the dimmer. Yeah a resisitive load like an incandescent lamp can be used or a capacitive load (aka capacitor) can be used to "stablize" the lamp when being dimmed. I personally don't care much about dimming HIDs and now with LEDs, dimmable HIDs aren't needed anymore.
Cool finds Mike! Looking forward to some pics of them. Those girder framed mercs are hard to come by now.
Back in the day before electronic HID ballasts, the common way to dim HID was to have mulitple caps in the fixture and a relay to switch how the caps are connected since changing the capacitance on a CWA ballast will alter the lamp current. Now I don't see that used anymore since I think most high lumen dimming applications switched to dimming fluorescent ballasts and LED. Most of my installs at home that need dimming are now LED for the same reason, easier to dim than CFL.
As for the lamp, it got rescued one day. They haven't been used in the last 20 years and there are some fixtures with missing lamps so I figured ehh what the heck.
Yeah unfortunately the girder frame Sylvania was the one that broke. I decided to just roll out the big guns and skip the 250W MH ballast and go for the 250W HPS ballast with the igniter connected. They didn't even glow. Looks like these things are REALLY dead! My guess is that they were being used in an improper fixture. What normal person has three dead 250W MV lamps at their house, one from the 60s, one from the 70s, and one from the 80s? If they're killing the lamps that fast then there must be something wrong. My guess is that they put the 250W lamps in a 175W NEMA/yardblaster thinking they could get more light and maybe the lamps just sputtered to death. The arc tubes are pretty black, even in the middle. I wonder where this person got these 250W MV lamps since it's not like the hardware stores stock 250W MV lamps. Usually only 175W or 100W. Home Depot sells 250W Philips MV lamps but I don't think Home Depot was selling a line of HIDs back in the 60s and 70s lol. But yeah, they're as dead as a doornail so I guess I'll just hang onto them for display. I was really hoping they'd work and just be super dim but alas, they are totally dead. The HPS igniter was just buzzing like a hornets' nest, as if there were no lamp inserted.
Update the base on this came loose and it seemed like the original base cement just crumbled loose. I fixed it with some gorilla glue and a soldering iron to solder the connections on. I also noticed that this lamp has trouble starting in my R47. I wonder if horizontal operation makes it harder to start.
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BTW, I got three old 250W /DX MV lamps as an early Christmas gift! One (the oldest, a late 60s-early 70s Sylvania with girder acr tube frame) broke at the base when I rinsed it (wasn't hot water or anything, the glass just gave out and sheared at the neck for some reason). Not sure if it still worked or not. The other two, a Sylvania clearbander and a 80s ED28 GE, did not light on my 100W MV M-250A. Not sure if they're just hard to start or if they're dead. Even though I was trying the 250W lamps on a 100W ballast, being MV, they should have lit (just never would have warmed up much at all). I've lit a 400W merc off a 100W MV ballast, though the lamp never made it out of the pink phase lol. Probably bad for the lamp but I didn't run it long. They do make dimmable HID ballasts, so a 400W merc could run a lower power (they use capacitors to adjust current to the lamp) but it requires the lamp to run at full brightness for at least a half-hour or so before the lamps can be dimmed since otherwise the electrodes would sputter and the lamp would not last long at all. Of course, even if run for at least a half hour, a conventional dimmer can't be used to dim HIDs (unless you configure the extra capacitor(s) in; I'm not sure how to do that).
A few years ago I had a conventional 175w yardblaster set up with a regular Leviton (or maybe it was Lutron; don't remember) rotary TRIAC incandescent dimmer (the kind that dims the light over the kitchen table). It actually worked with at least moderate success!
There's a couple vids on YouTube a fellow lighting enthusiast (...) I've also found helps a lot (I did it, as was also done in the second YT vid I've linked to) is having an incandescent also running off that dimmer...I think it's because those things need a resistive load as opposed to inductive (ballast and arc).
Interesting info on the dimmer. Yeah a resisitive load like an incandescent lamp can be used or a capacitive load (aka capacitor) can be used to "stablize" the lamp when being dimmed. I personally don't care much about dimming HIDs and now with LEDs, dimmable HIDs aren't needed anymore.
Back in the day before electronic HID ballasts, the common way to dim HID was to have mulitple caps in the fixture and a relay to switch how the caps are connected since changing the capacitance on a CWA ballast will alter the lamp current. Now I don't see that used anymore since I think most high lumen dimming applications switched to dimming fluorescent ballasts and LED. Most of my installs at home that need dimming are now LED for the same reason, easier to dim than CFL.
As for the lamp, it got rescued one day.