Using 175W H39 Mercury Vapor CWA Ballast to Run a VHO Fluorescent Tube

What you see here is an experiment that involves me trying to run a 6 foot F72T12/CW/VHO fluorescent tube on a preheat circuit using a 175W H39 mercury vapor CWA ballast. Check out the interesting results as you watch the video.

[@Fluffberymoff]

I'm currently working on an experiment of running a old fluorescent tube with dead filaments on a ccfl driver from a 2w bulb, I just need to figure out some way to get the high voltage circuit out without breaking the PCB

[@johnjunior-70]

This is not very good for the fluorescent lamp and transformers are not very good for this use! but yes, it's a cheap solution, it's the first time I've seen this lamp, I didn't know it had 165w fluorescent, I knew it was up to 80w!! But how bright is it? and finally after a long time new video 😃

[@worldwidehidcollectorusa3519]

@@johnjunior-70 This was just another way of running the fluorescent tube. I just tried this experiment and it seems to be doing okay so far. Additionally, the tube was running close to its rated current, but only at a minor overdrive. These fluorescent tubes tend to have a lumen of about 9,000 lumens, which is roughly the same as a 500W incandescent lamp.

[@worldwidehidcollectorusa3519]

@@johnjunior-70 Here in North America, we also have tubes like these that also have a power rating as high as 215W!!!

[@johnjunior-70]

165w• 54.55 lumens/watt=9000lumens! definitely much better than a 500 watt incandescent but not very efficient, better with two 58w fluorescent bulbs giving up to 5200 lumens each but slightly more efficient than a 175w mercury bulb giving around 7800-8000 lumens a halogen bulb consuming approx 380-400w have the same brightness as this 165w fluorescent lamp, but a HPS 100W lamp, Philips SON 100w •85 lumens/watt=8500 lumens or about the same brightness as philips master son-t apia plus xtra 70w • 96 lumens/watt=7200lumens

[@rarelampcollector]

Pretty crude way of running a F72T12 VHO. I wonder if this same mercury vapor / metal haide ballast set up could also be used to run a F96T12/VHO or F96PG17 in a pinch since they are both 1500mA and VHO fluorescent ballasts are very hard to come by these days. ?

[@worldwidehidcollectorusa3519]

@@rarelampcollector I am also thinking about possibly trying to get that 6 foot VHO fluorescent tube to run on a 150W M102 pulse start metal halide HX autotransformer ballast sometime using preheat circuitry. I think these CWA mercury vapor ballasts may have a good advantage for possibly running 215W 8 foot VHO and powergroove tubes using preheat circuitry because I think the series capacitor from the CWA ballasts might provide the extra voltage to help keep the 215W tubes running while HX autotransformer 175W H39 mercury vapor ballasts would have a harder time running the 215W tubes due to the relatively high arc voltage drop.

[@kenytha5]

Do you know of some lamp that can operate on one or a pair of s76 bare reactor ballasts?

[@worldwidehidcollectorusa3519]

@@kenytha5 As far as I know, I believe a 3 foot F36T12 HO fluorescent tube or a 30 inch F30T12 HO fluorescent tube is good enough for a 35W S76 high pressure sodium ballast and it would be wired up as a preheat fluorescent ballast for those tubes. You could use a FS2 or FS25 starter for these tubes when using these high pressure sodium ballasts along with these small HO T12 tubes.