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CMH Refit Testing out a refit of my incandescent gumball to 39w CMH. It seems to work fairly well but the 39w CMH has fewer lumens than the 200w incandescent it replaced. I suppose 50w CMH would be a better choice but I don't have a 50w MH ballast that fits in the head. To be honest it looks pretty good with a 39w CMH. I suppose Toronto could have also retrofitted their lights but it takes quite a bit of work to make custom brackets for the ballast. And I think magnetic ballasts might have trouble fitting. For this refit I used a 39w Advance E-vision electronic ballast. Since I couldn't find a 39w ED-17 CMH (do they even make those?), I had to settle for the PAR 30 lamp. I also tried a PAR 20 lamp but I found the PAR 30 lamp had a wider beam which looks a bit better. Keywords: American_Streetlights

CMH Refit

Testing out a refit of my incandescent gumball to 39w CMH. It seems to work fairly well but the 39w CMH has fewer lumens than the 200w incandescent it replaced. I suppose 50w CMH would be a better choice but I don't have a 50w MH ballast that fits in the head. To be honest it looks pretty good with a 39w CMH. I suppose Toronto could have also retrofitted their lights but it takes quite a bit of work to make custom brackets for the ballast. And I think magnetic ballasts might have trouble fitting. For this refit I used a 39w Advance E-vision electronic ballast.

Since I couldn't find a 39w ED-17 CMH (do they even make those?), I had to settle for the PAR 30 lamp. I also tried a PAR 20 lamp but I found the PAR 30 lamp had a wider beam which looks a bit better.

PB023817.JPG CIMG4981.JPG COL_IMG_1071_M.JPG 20141124_111218_zed20141124_111231_70p.jpg gol10062012_005.jpg
File information
Filename:COL_IMG_1071_M.JPG
Album name:joe_347V / My Streetlight Collection
Keywords:American_Streetlights
Company and Date Manufactured:Powerlite Devices, 1950s
Wattage:39w
Lamp Type:Ceramic metal halide
Filesize:206 KiB
Date added:May 11, 2014
Dimensions:2000 x 923 pixels
Displayed:607 times
Color Space:sRGB
DateTime Original:2014:05:10 18:00:11
Exposure Bias:0 EV
Exposure Mode:0
Exposure Program:Program
Exposure Time:1/80 sec
FNumber:f/5.6
Flash:No Flash
Focal length:35 mm
ISO:100
Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS REBEL T3
URL:http://www.galleryoflights.org/mb/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=17474
Favorites:Add to Favorites

Comment 1 to 15 of 15
Page: 1

GEsoftwhite100watts   [May 11, 2014 at 05:11 PM]
Interesting conversion! What's the warmup/restrike time?
streetlight98   [May 11, 2014 at 05:33 PM]
Nice! Yeah CMH is nice. My only CMH lamp is a 400W HPS retrofit lamp but my 400W HPS westie ballast is used as a weight in my light pole stand in my room so I can't use it. I've lit it up before though and love it. It's ET18 shape like HPS lamps instead of ED/BT37. It's a Philips lamp, an Alto IIRC.

How does the PAR lamp compare to a standard ED lamp? Yeah the lowest wattage elliptical MH lamp is 50W PSMH as far as I know. Anything lower than that is probably only used indoors in recessed cans or spot lights so there's no demand for it.

Even 50W PSMH seems uncommon. McCann Lighting offers 70W PSMH as the lowest for it's fixtures but that's mainly because I didn't know that 50W PSMH existed until after i started including PSMH in the spec sheets so I'm just not going to add it in. I guess if I were ever to actually start McCann Lighting I'd offer 50W PSMH as a "contact-the-factory option".
joe_347V   [May 12, 2014 at 02:02 AM]
Thanks! It seems to warm up fairly quickly but I haven't checked the restike time yet. The PAR lamp works ok since the lamp is vertical but I suppose a ED lamp would be better. Aside from the PAR lamps, I know 39w CMH also comes in those tubular lamps which need bi pin sockets.

Yeah, I don't really see 39w CMH being used outdoors anyway, I think 50w is the lowest MH wattage I've seen outdoors and even that is rare.

If I manage to find a 50w PSMH electronic ballast I might swap the 39w one out but I don't have any 50w CMH lamps. I have a 50w PSMH though.
streetlight98   [May 12, 2014 at 11:07 AM]
For regular PSMH, I have the 70W PSMH deck light, which is rarely used now with my street light pole out back. Then there's my M-400A2s, one of which will be going to Darren. I actually sent the refractor already. I have to restore the fixture this summer...
joe_347V   [May 13, 2014 at 05:03 AM]
Ahh for regular PSMH I have the 50w I mentioned earlier, a 70w but I rarely used it since I like CMH more, a 100w, and a used 250w from a highbay.
Form109   [May 13, 2014 at 03:48 PM]
Neat retrofit but why a PAR Lamp?
streetlight98   [May 13, 2014 at 07:23 PM]
Oh for lamps I have the coated protected 70W PSMH in the deck light, the unprotected clear no name that came with the deck light, an NOS Luma protected clear 70W PSMH lamp, two Philips ED28 320W PSMH clear unprotected lamps (one was sent to Darren) and about a dozen Venture 350W PSMH /BU protected lamps. My only 350W PSMH ballasts are 277V reactors though. Maybe they can run a different type lamp at 120V? It's a reactor so at 120V the voltage should be right to power a 55V HPS wouldn't it?
GEsoftwhite100watts   [May 14, 2014 at 01:01 AM]
If you have a larger multitap (say 400w) ballast you can wire it to 120v like normal then take the 277v tap as the "hot" to one of those then wire the neutral to the 120v neutral. I've been known to do it before...I guess another identical ballast would work but bigger is probably better...just don't go above what it's rated for and you should be fine. Of course, don't put a lamp in what you're using as the transformer...dunno what sort of fireworks that would result in and I don't want to know either!
streetlight98   [May 14, 2014 at 01:45 AM]
Unfortunately my only multitap ballast over 350W is my westinghouse 400W HPS ballast and it can't be wired to more than one voltage at once. The next closest is my 320W PSMH M-400A2 ballasts and then my 250W MH/MV ballast. My other ballasts are either 120V or 120/240V.
GEsoftwhite100watts   [May 14, 2014 at 01:53 AM]
Yeah it can...I can post a photo of how to do it if you'd like... Very Happy
streetlight98   [May 14, 2014 at 03:05 AM]
you need to add the wire but the ballast weighs like 30 pounds itself so it's too heavy to use anyway. Neutral
GEsoftwhite100watts   [May 14, 2014 at 03:21 AM]
Is this going in a cobrahead then? I'm talking on the floor for lamp testing purposes... Laughing
joe_347V   [May 14, 2014 at 03:49 AM]
@Devonte, yeah I would have used a ED-17 lamp but I don't think they make 39w CMH in ED-17.
Form109   [May 14, 2014 at 04:23 PM]
ah ok gotcha. Wink

these small PAR MH Lamps intreast me.
joe_347V   [Sep 16, 2016 at 02:11 PM]
Update: I converted this back to incandescent. The 39w PAR lamp was quite odd in the standard sized gumball. I converted my mini gumball to 39W CMH using another one of these ballasts and bought a G12 based CMH for it.

If I ever end up installing this, I might convert it to remote 150w CMH though. I have a couple of lamps and ballasts lying around.

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