What does a capacitor do in a metal halide light?
Capacitors are used as a power factor correcting or current regulating device and provide the control necessary to ensure proper lamp and ballast operation. Different wattages, voltages, and ballast types require a variety of different capacitor values.
What is M58 E ballast?
An M58 ballast is for a 250 watt probe start lamp. What is the full code of the replacement lamps? M153 or M158 is a pulse start lamp. I would open the fixtures and check the ballasts themselves. Look for any burn marks, check the capacitor as well that its has the correct MFD within a 10% range from the stated number.
How long does a metal halide ballast last?
Three years is about right, maybe a bit long for HID lamps. If you look in the lamp catalogs, for example it will list 15,000 hours. This is the average life, and at that life you will have 50% failure, of course depending on the burn time.
Does a metal halide bulb need a ballast?
Metal halide (MH) ballasts are required to start the lamp, regulate the lamp starting and lamp operating currents, and provide appropriate sustaining supply voltage.
What voltage does a metal halide ballast put out?
Most metal halide ballasts operate on 120-277V. These are called 4-tap ballasts and they operate 120/208/240/277V.
Which is better LED or metal halide?
LEDs tend to last much longer and are a more energy efficient and less maintenance intensive technology. Metal halides have long warm-up periods and a shorter lifespan but produce a very high quality light and are one of the most efficient lights when it comes to very cool color temperature outputs.
Can I replace a metal halide bulbs with LED?
Light-emitting diode (LED) technology advancements now allow you to retrofit your metal halide lamps with a simple bulb change. LEDs can give you comparable lumens at a fraction of the energy cost. They are also longer-lived and show a lower reduction of performance over their service life.
How do you test a metal halide ballast?
Check the ballast output with a voltage tester. Turn on the lamp and touch the ends of the tester leads to the lamp electrodes with the bulb in place, then remove the bulb and make the same test. You should get voltage readings in both cases that agree with the output specified on the label.