Vintage Mercury Vapor Light for the Pole Barn

Kind of an off topic video today!
I have had this old Pemco mercury vapor light fixture for a few years now and now I finally have a use for it.
I probably will not leave this thing on every night but it will be nice to have if I ever need to work outside at night!
Thanks for watching!

[@MrVailtown]

They miss the point, "nostalgic" . Thanks for the memories. Life seemed simpler back in that era.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for checking it out! That is what I was going for!

[@ScoutCrafter]

Awesome job Mike! That bracket is genius!!!!

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for checking it out Scout!

[@dangoldbach6570]

We had the exact same light on our barn when I was growing up, my father installed it in 1986 and it still worked when we moved in 2013, those bulbs never really die they just get dimmer until they are just little green glowing tubes that still draw the full power but it takes about 40 years to do it! 😅

[@philipstreechon4523]

Nice old light better than LED

[@brave1.0]

Yes, for sure as the new ILLEDIseasester lights fail in 3 months sometimes. I have seen a ton of corn cob bulbs that failed or were flickering meanwhile they are suppose to last 50,000 hours, what the heck? LED is just a bunch of lies meant to scare people that we are ever running out of energy or we will be dead in 12 years due to climate change. Wth?

[@giggiddy]

I've always been intrigued by the old school lights having to warm up. I remember as a kid, the power company leasing them to farmers and other businesses like that.. Sometimes they were the only light around at night. Seems like they last forever. Great job and install looks quality.

[@erikj.2066]

My fathers house built in the late 80's had one of these installed for a back porch light. Wasn't on a mast, but the housing was bolted directly to the house. Threw a ton of light, but if I recall correctly, took the 5 minutes to warm up, and if you were to turn it off then immediately try to turn it back on there was a delay. Dad still has the light on the house, and I believe it's still the same bulb the fixture came with in '87. While I can appreciate this lights merits at the time it was built, and wouldn't mind having one to play with, the current draw makes me cringe. With the electric rate being ungodly high in my area, I wouldn't want to have one for daily use.

[@brave1.0]

The LEDs and MH cause way more light pollution than the Good Old MV lamps. The LEDs even the good quality ones won't outlast the Good Ol' MV lights. LEDs are all Made in China and will fail much earlier than the Good Old 60s or the later 80s KB Westinghouse or Philips Lifeguard lamps that or any MV in general that is Made in USA. The MV was already banned in 2008 because of the energy efficiency and the "enviornmental concerns". Sure the MV bulbs do contains Mercury and that's the name "Mercury Vapor" lamp, but the MV has been well known to last 50 years and as long as if you don't break them during the one time installation (for it to not need servicing for many decades), you are good and that's why when you go to a rural parts of the world with electricity, you will see a ton of these babies still lighting up a ton of private properties. The reason to why the Metal Halide is worse than the MV is because they can explode at the EOL, (not common but it still happens). Even when the MV is 50 years old, it doesn't burn out, it continues to work just decreases in lumens slowly. Yes, MV does work for many decades, it just gets dims gradually. You should do your own research on MV, MH and LEDs to know the truth. I don't like LEDs is beause I have seen almost all Corn Cob LEDs out in one parking lot and I have seen lots and lots of parking lots and even grocery stores with Fluorescent linear LED replacements that had drivers that were out and they are supposed to last 50k hours, and I have seen a hotel also with 3 Corn Cob LEDs failed and 5 were flickering with only one okay one. Also I have seen a ton of LED street lights out even though they are suppose to last 50k hours? What the heck? The LEDs are used to control people to buy into the energy conservation as if we really need to conserve energy and it's in the same way how the government locks people down just so that they can control the little sheep. Like it or not, the MV is the best outdoor light source to this day and it will continue being used for many more years to come.

[@erikj.2066]

@@brave1.0 while l appreciate your reply, and your passion on the subject, I’ve done my own research. All the lightbulbs in my house, sans one incandescent in the attic are LED’s. My electric bill is around $40 less a month, using bulbs that cost me no more than buying their incandescent equivalent. Most of them have exceeded the lifespan of a typical incandescent. They turn on instantly, in all temperatures, and when they die, they’ll be slipped into a standard trash receptacle, rather than need to be saved for special recycling. A week or two, after posting the original post, the local hardware store had a pile of outdoor mercury vapor fixtures, complete with bulb, marked from $70 down to $20. I bought one for the fun of it, and at some point, I’ll mount it to the backside of the shed for occasional light when I need it. That being said, all four corners of the outside of my house using LED floods use less wattage combined than that one MV fixture. They instantly turn on, even when it’s -10 out, and throw just as much light. You’re free to screw in what ever bulb you like into your light sockets. I’m going to do the same. Nobody, not the gov’t, nor anyone else will tell me what to use in my house, that I pay the mortgage, taxes, and electric bill on.

[@peterhodgkins6985]

A very nice light and a good installation! Yeah, those lights were all over the place in the 1960s... They were said to be significantly cheaper to run than other types of lights. For the amount of light you get out of them, I'd say that claim was reasonable for the times. (Electricity was cheap in those days!) I love seeing stuff like that refurbished and put into service!!

[@bobpowers9862]

Mercury Vapor lights are essentially a variant on the classic fluorescent bulb technology. Inside the glass envelope is a small charge of mercury, which is vaporized by the power. A pair of electrodes creates a mercury plasma, which emits nearly all in the UV range. The inside of the bulb is coated with classic white phosphors (as in a FL bulb), and converts the UV into white light. The glass prevents the UV from going through (it is opaque to UV). That being said, it grows dimmer, as the phosphors break down over time, and/or the electrodes erode. This is really old tech, and pretty cool. It was very efficient for it's day, especially compared to simple incandescent of the same lumen rating.

[@gutsngorrrr]

That's a lovely old school light, that will outlast any of the new stuff.

[@brave1.0]

Mark, I have a Philips Lifeguard lamp from the 86 I bought on eBay for $20 a few months ago. The lamp looks brand new and has it’s original sleeve too. The lamp has minor damage such as a small glass piece rattling around inside the lamp, but again, that’s not worrying (as there is nothing broken inside). But speaking of which, I completely agree with you, these lamps will outlast any new paper thin LED street lights they are installing in large cities worldwide.

[@rexharvey8420]

I love your tear downs and descriptions and efforts at rebuilding your various generators I find fascinating. I was a bug hunter in the UK fifty years ago and to attract moths we used mercury vapour bulbs, mostly 125w 230volt MBU units, though we also had 80w and 250 w units with suitable chokes - (ballasts) Take care don't look at the bulb when on, Uv is bad for your eyes! Out in the woods we used small ex-service (Army) portable generators, mostly 300w/230volt output, some with Villiers four-stroke side valve engines and belt driven generators with rope, pull start, all in a transport frame. We also had American ex-service Johnson made, direct coupled Chore Horse generators. A much better made unit, which ran more slowly with a big external flywheel, than the Villiers and had an auxiliary starting battery on the 350w/230v generator. A heavy unit that was about half the size of the Villiers unit made by EDC. I now live in South Africa and we are crippled with power outages I wish we were able to get ex-service stand-by generators like you are able to buy from sales in the US.

[@bruh2189]

True quality light that has been built to Last. Amazing and rare.

[@sheep1ewe]

Those are realy great lights, i still use them too.

[@cherrysdiy5005]

Very clever use of a three way switch for the lamp!

[@AmraphelofShinar]

That thing is so cool. Takes me back to my childhood.

[@patrickboyd6486]

Thank you for that clip good to see an old light given a new lease in life. A lot of people now days would buy a new light and not restore that light Keep up the good work.

[@garylucas6511]

I very much enjoyed the video i too , for some reason, have always liked these type of outdoor light fixtures . I guess it brings back many memories of being a kid and playing night time outdoor games with my childhood friends at the local church yard, etc. i seem to remember the bulbs the power company used back then seem to distort the paint color on cars parked underneath. They also seemed to have a fast flicker to them... at least I seem to remember that.

[@sodiumvapor13]

Great lights! Love the old mercury fixtures. Personally, I think the clear mercury lamps look the best

[@chriholt]

Very cool Mike. The comments about swapping out for LEDs don't get the concept of what you did!

[@aaronpowell4885]

Amen brother! Have 3 mv fixtures in use on my property. We do have a few screw in LEDs, but none in living areas or bathrooms just incandescent and halogen "look" alikes. Also never wear a mask. God bless👍

[@Lunar_Capital]

Rick Delair Sweet! I just put up a 70w HPS GE Bucket area light that’s new old stock from the 90’s on a homemade post on my shed. And I just installed a 100W MH floodlight on my house to light up my porch and pool, it replaced a junk 300w halogen flood. I also have a modded 175w MV street light by GE (originally 50w HPS) that lights up my room. I love HID technology so much. it’s a shame LEDs have to exist to try and kill off every light source imaginable, quite literally.

[@NenadKralj]

@@aaronpowell4885 + @Chris Holt I will support you on that !! 👍

[@bobpowers9862]

@@aaronpowell4885 // Also never wear a mask. God bless// Ironic. The use of 'God bless' with the very selfish "never wear a mask" comment. It's called a Social Contract: you wear a mask to indicate you care about people around you. Refusing to wear one, shows how selfish you are acting. Good job. A real credit to the hypocritical 'God bless'.

[@aterack833]

That’s a good ballast, that clear coat you did couldn’t’ve hurt either

[@victoryfirst2878]

Mike sometimes extra features like a capacitor is one other thing that can give you a problem. That is what an old timer use to tell me all the time. Keep up the great work fella too. VF

[@tomhoehler3284]

Good job, Mike! Those old school mercury vapor lamps really do put out the light! I really enjoyed the video!

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for watching Tom!

[@TheMrRuger]

That'll shine some light on the subject.

[@rickhaass1133]

I really like the MV lamps - they put off a great color and used to be called moon lights... if my memory serves me correctly.

[@brave1.0]

Yes indeed! One of the best outdoor light sources on this earth. it outlasts any LED that will likely fail in 3 months or a year.

[@KPearce57]

Working for USACE army corps of engineers, we last year took 300 of these out of service and replaced them with LED lamps.

[@DC-jj1ge]

Bummer 👎

[@lordhoho1]

Excellent workmanship as usual

[@crasbee]

One thought about the power factor and the missing capacitor at 11:13 : In a large installation where you have many of those lamps it's not favorable to have a capacitor at each lamp. Instead what they might have done (and what's done with large fluorecent lamp installations today) is that they had larger capacitors at every third, fourth, fifth or whatever lamp to decrease the risk of getting a resonance between the inductance, the capacitance of the capacitor and the inductance and resistance of the wires in between. That's what our Prof in university told us when we calculated power factors and current phase angles.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@nashguy207]

Nice work mike. One of my neighbors had one of those for years on a pole by there barn I remember he said it cost him 25.00 a month back the for the pole and light and when the light bulb burnt out the power company came and replaced it at no charge. LOL

[@frankbiz]

Thanks Mike, I found this very interesting and you did an outstanding job in the installation. 👍🏻 These lights always fasciated me as well, when I was in the 8th. grade in 1966, the gym had these lights and loved to see them warm up.

[@tomwilliams8675]

I didn't know you were near Philly. I worked in Kennett Square for an Electrical company for a just about a year. I live in Syracuse NY, which is where Pass & Seymore probably made that light fixture. Small world. As nice as these lights look, the new LED wall pack lights are more efficient, last longer and give can provide a much higher illumination.

[@shawnmrfixitlee6478]

My grandpa had one of those put up in the 70's and it still worked fine when my dad sold the place 3 years ago .. ENJOYED Mike !!

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks Shawn!

[@wrenchguy]

Your shop is to neat and organized! When we gonna get the debut of the other big "C"?

[@scruffy6151]

Well done on bringing it back life and putting it to use.

[@crx350x1]

Another great video! I like the color that light gives off.

[@rustymotor]

Beautiful lamp! Nothing is as nice as a discharge lamp at night, LEDs not the same. I have collected and restored numerous lamp fittings, love the look of them.

[@StreuB1]

It pleased me to no end to see you do the electrical the right way. Wow.....I am literally so pleased LOL!!! Everything looks great!! Could likely go one step lower in power and I am pretty sure your ballast can remain the same.

[@deanehill9730]

Like your videos. Well produced with clear speaking. Thanks.

[@ford300rippergarage]

Looks fantastic mike ! Got a similar fixture on a pole in the front yard, 6 bucks a month from the electric co-op with free bulb replacement. Although mine is a sodium bulb, produces warm yellow light.

[@butler386]

I mounted one to one of my houses I had and it was fantastic. Easy to see who came to the house and keep strangers away.

[@dwaynemiller68]

Thank you for your videos I actually learned something on this one we have these lights down in our oil change pit and I think that's what they are cuz they take a little bit to warm up they get brighter and brighter as they warm up thank you

[@redsquirrelftw]

This reminds me when I was a little kid I was obsessed with street lights that are kinda similar, but think they are HPFS. I knew at roughly what order the ones around my house went on and would wait to watch them turn on. Some would turn on rather gracefully, while some would go a little haywire, lot of flashing. Kinda makes me want to check ebay to see if I can pick one up for shits and giggles. Don't really have a place for it though haha. Older lights like that are not efficient at all but they were built well!

[@turnbullfl4114]

Love the color and nostalgia of MV lamps. The last one disappeared from my street about a year ago. I have a MV post light in my front yard, but only occasionally turn it on, don't want to use the electric. Instead 3 1.5W leds provide enough light.

[@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305]

1.5w led.. if its good for your situation sure.. but general LED fixtures while better than MV arent much better. The typical 50w barn light led doesnt have the range that a MV light does.

[@cptyler150]

Mike good work terrific it looks great on the front of the barn just keep the bulb in. Always like watching your diagnostic videos they're very good...

[@aaronpowell4885]

I've always been strangely fascinated by HID lightning, particularly mercury vapor. My father installed a 175 watt cooper mv fixture in the side yard at our last house in 93. When we moved to our current house in 98 I relocated that fixture to the back of the house and it has only needed 1 bulb and 1 photocell since 93! Also acquired several more mv fixtures when my uncle "upgraded" the lighting at his ranch to high pressure sodium🤮 so I now also have one in the pasture and one on the barn🙂 thanks for the upload Mike👍 p.s. yes a 100w mv would require a ballast swap.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks Aaron, personally I cant stand HPS lighting either!

[@Lunar_Capital]

HPS? Hey least it’s still HID and not LED 😉

[@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305]

Umm those bulbs dont burn out but they lose brightness.. they really need replaced after 3-5 years. You dont notice the light deop because youre used to it.. but i garuntee that 20 year old bulb is putting out 20-30% of the light output it used too and still using 175w

[@colin_5839]

Nice! I like it a lot! Now all you need is more lights inside the barn lol!

[@johnstrange6799]

Very illuminating.

[@campermike8879]

New bulb. Give it a few months and it will dim down some. Reminds me a lot of the street light in front of the house i grew up in.

[@xsbuilder1]

Hey, I admit I was getting jaded on YT tech vids. I have dabbled in a lot of stuff over the (many) years of taking things apart and recently have not been finding much to really interest me. But this mercury lamp episode immediately got my attention. When I was young(er) and my home town switched from incandescent to MVL lighting, I desperately wanted one of them! Yeah, I wanted to do just what you did. Sure, take it apart and figure out how it worked, then mount it on the face of the garage to light up the driveway for working on cars in the evening. I never got the chance. Our local junk yard had lots of old lighting equipment, but no MV lamp stuff (too new, I guess). So thanks a lot for this vid! P.S. I like your engine vids too. Cheers mate

[@rickjohnson1632]

It would be nice to have a small panel for that pole barn especially if you plan on doing a lot of work out there . Looking forward to seeing future projects . Nice bracket btw, I wish I had learned metal working. I love the light 👍😎✌️

[@fullraph]

Cool project man, I always been fascinated by these kind of lights too. We call them sentinels over here.

[@Indiskret1]

Very nice! Great mounting bracket. Bright like the sun.

[@Boot_185]

I looked around me for years for one I ended up buying one that looks like that but takes a huge fluorescent bulb over a mercury one. They do their job and at Menards they were cheap. I got 2 of them one for each side of my shop and went with that style because like you I just like the look of it

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Cool! Thanks for checking it out!

[@hotrodZack1948]

We had that exact light outside our barn when I was a kid. Still out there as far as I know new owners tho.

[@hotrodZack1948]

You’re gonna have barn swallows building a nest on top of your bracket tho ha or wasps inside it. I wouldn’t go down a bulb size you’ll need the extra light someday when you’re fixing the tractor late in the fall or winter.

[@kerrygleeson4409]

Thanks Mike great job and very interesting thanks for sharing

[@w8nwo]

Nice setup with the switches. I installed an incandescent motion sensor light the same way. Its nice to be able to turn it off completely or force it to stay on if I wish.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for checking it out!

[@chatrkat]

I removed two 100 w metal halide barn fixtures similar to that and replaced with good quality RAB LED type. 175 w equivalent @ 35 w each. I’m ultra impressed with the light output and the fixtures look good physically. Also that mercury lamp really should be an outdoor rated glass envelope for an open bottom globe.

[@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305]

You do know that 175w equivalent is in incadescent light equiv right.. not HID. Hid is far superior to incandescent... 100w metal halide puts out 10k lumens just about that 35w led is probably around 3k lumens. So you downgraded your lighting output by more than double from the metal halide lol

[@loudspeakertestsmorebyaida3804]

@@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305 I agree. You need at least 8,000 lumens to compete to a 175 watt metal halide.

[@mattthescrapwhisperer]

Pretty slick light!

[@SkinnyBiker]

Had one of those and I swear my electric bill went down over $100.00 when it went out. Never did fix it until I sold the house because the buyer wanted it working. Good luck making it work efficiently.

[@markholder6851]

Good video. I love old Mercury vapour lamps, so this was a great video to watch. Looks great on your barn. I would have fitted a PF capacitor myself

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks Mark!

[@oblioi]

bugs will be happy too lol:o)

[@Jim-ie6uf]

Nice job!

[@jamesdavis4124]

Interesting video, I have been thinking about lighting for my carport I recently had installed for my boat and tractor.

[@manowaari]

Cool old style mercury vapor lamp. Here in Finland it used to be very common on all illuminated roads. But in Europe selling those mercury bulbs is prohibited since 2015, so they are fading away. Only local electric companies that have large stock still can maintain those street lights. Mostly they are replaced by LED lights. I think average life of those MV bulbs is about 3 years.

[@AirDave1]

Could you have used a spst switch to essentially short the sensor, applying power around it? Also, totally cool install & "retro" luminarie. 🙂

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for watching!

[@not2fast4u2c]

It is a Nice old school light fixture...I am sure there will be plenty of bugs flying around it at night

[@arrans1987]

Good work on that bracket. Looks top notch workmanship 👍🏼

[@kennethdegruchy5503]

Great video and much appreciated by myself who was much benefited by the sale of such products as my Dad was a salesman for Graybar Electric and probably sold these along with "everything electrical"which was and perhaps still is Graybar's slogan. This is an arc lamp which develops positive pressure once warmed up. They can shatter and thus the heavy duty surrounding lens used in the fixture. I would be cautious working around it without a protective shield.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for the tip!

[@Shane-Singleton]

I love the vintage lighting as well. Just not sure i'd want to pay the cost to feed it over what a new LED solution would cost. Vapor, short arc, etc love the kilowatts.

[@gtoger]

Can confirm. Have been replacing 400W mercury-vapor wall paks with LEDs. No regrets.

[@Shane-Singleton]

@@gtoger I've got an old vintage 2-tube industrial drafting lamp with the spring loaded swing arms, etc. Well the ballast decided it only wanted to run one tube, and then got sketchy and decided it didn't want to run one so I gutted the entire thing and installed two LED strips with diffusers meant for under-counter lighting and run the whole thing off of a single 1 amp USB phone charger.

[@crhirschi]

@@gtoger Got to be able to see those tow trucks!

[@gtoger]

@@crhirschi exactly.

[@brave1.0]

One day you will understand that the LEDs and MH cause way more light pollution than the Good Old MV lamps. The LEDs even the good quality ones won't outlast the Good Ol' MV lights. LEDs are all Made in China and will fail much earlier than the Good Old 60s or the later 80s KB Westinghouse or Philips Lifeguard lamps that or any MV in general that is Made in USA. The MV was already banned in 2008 because of the energy efficiency and the "enviornmental concerns". Sure the MV bulbs do contains Mercury and that's the name "Mercury Vapor" lamp, but the MV has been well known to last 50 years and as long as if you don't break them during the one time installation (for it to not need servicing for many decades), you are good and that's why when you go to a rural parts of the world with electricity, you will see a ton of these babies still lighting up a ton of private properties. The reason to why the Metal Halide is worse than the MV is because they can explode at the EOL, (not common but it still happens). Even when the MV is 50 years old, it doesn't burn out, it continues to work just decreases in lumens slowly. Yes, MV does work for many decades, it just gets dims gradually. You should do your own research on MV, MH and LEDs to know the truth. I don't like LEDs is beause I have seen almost all Corn Cob LEDs out in one parking lot and I have seen lots and lots of parking lots and even grocery stores with Fluorescent linear LED replacements that had drivers that were out and they are supposed to last 50k hours, and I have seen a hotel also with 3 Corn Cob LEDs failed and 5 were flickering with only one okay one. Also I have seen a ton of LED street lights out even though they are suppose to last 50k hours? What the heck? The LEDs are used to control people to buy into the energy conservation as if we really need to conserve energy and it's in the same way how the government locks people down just so that they can control the little sheep. Like it or not, the MV is the best outdoor light source to this day and it will continue being used for many more years to come.

[@16mmDJ]

nice bracket, looks great!

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks!

[@chrisingle5839]

I've got one of those, but it's from the 1940s and is 500 Watt incandescent. Just looks neat. I run it with a switch to hot in series with the photoeye in case I forget to shut it off.

[@TechGorilla1987]

@5 miles from Philly is almost not far enough to escape the stench. Better move to Harrisburg to be sure.

[@AW-Services]

An incredible colour and stated as very energy efficient once warmed up and running. These were common in emergency inflatable lighting towers in the UK 🇬🇧

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Interesting, Thanks for checking it out!

[@Thermoelectric7]

Mercury vapour lamps are among the worst in efficiency, they were the step up from incandescants. Their long life contributes to this as they seemingly last forever however the longer they go the lower the light output is, further reducing efficiency.

[@brnmcc01]

@@Thermoelectric7 The color is bad too, a lot of green etc. Metal Halide is much better for this type of lamp, and not much less efficient than run of the mill LED's. Sure there's LED that have better performance in lumens per watt, but they're running them at pretty high current levels, then the life depends a lot on the heatsink design, and a lot of cheap LED's have really terrible cheap heatsinks, and die in very hot locations. I do a lot of restaurant repair work, and I can tell you LED bulbs just don't last in a glass enclosed vapor proof fixture above a big charbroiler and cooking 100's of steaks every night. The high heat and grease gets to them pretty quick :/ Old school halogen work and last a lot longer, because those quartz bulbs can take the heat.

[@Thermoelectric7]

@@brnmcc01 metal halide have similar if not better efficiency than LED's starting out but it drops off somewhat quickly, and you won't notice the drop in light output until you go to replace them when they die. There's definitely some cheap shitty LED's out there on the market that give the rest a bad reputation, but you get what you pay for. Can't expect longevity out of a $5 no brand light when the name brands go for double the price.

[@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305]

@@brnmcc01 youre wrong.. the clear bulbs had bad color. Not the frosted coated bulbs. The frosted ones put out white light with a Color render index of 60. Which is pretty good actually. I have two 175w on a wooden utlity pole on my property.. one is a 50 year old fixture the other is a new old stock i put up to reolace the bad 2nd 50 year old one.. they had clear bulbs.. which looked neat.. but didnt seem light up much. Put frosted bulbs in and the entire house.. driveway.. all the way to ny tree line 250ft away is all lit up and all white... . The clear ones put out that green light with a cri of 22 near identical to that of high pressure sodium.. sodium lights have crappy cri as well. Only issue with HID is power usage for the mercury vapor is high. I have 3 on my property.. they use 33$ a month in electricity at .128 cents a kilowatt.. In total though i have like 1300 watts of hps and mercury vapor dusk to dawn lights on my 14acres. My electric bill is 78$ higher due to this. But really Led fixtures wont improve this much. And i actually prefer the orange glow of the HPS. Yes the cri is bad.. but i also dont want the glare of led in my eyes i like the subdued light

[@Mercmad]

I have three of those humming monsters up in the roof of my Workshop. Now disconnected and replaced with one LED floodlight. We have the most expensive electricity in the world here in Australia so i sav several hundred bucks per power bill.

[@brave1.0]

At least that LED will fail you very soon, just please take my advise, because they are Made in China, and they won't last even 5 years unlike your previous 3 MV lights that were probably more than 30 years old and and was working fine. Sure you did save some electric bill, but then you will have to replace the entire LED unit which i'm sure will cost a lot.

[@TechGorilla1987]

I used to grow po.....er, uh....tomatoes with fixtures like that only HPS. I have a few of the choke ballasts available.

[@jerrykorman7770]

Lol

[@ces188charles6]

I like those old style lights. Power company here replaced our old style lamp with a flat looking led light. That sucker is bright.......

[@brave1.0]

Or you mean it's bright in the surrounding spot, but it doesn't put out light everywhere.

[@Jayf1981]

Hi SEM, been hoping for a video! TY

[@frankdeegan8974]

Before these showed up it was a 100 watt light bulb on the windmill a pole or a building that was the yard/barn light that was it. Now there are so many of these there is no darkness in the countryside.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

I know what you mean Frank! In reality I will not have this light on every night. I will only use it when I have to work outside at night!

[@RobertKohut]

Nice!! Looks great... ;-)

[@roygunter3244]

I know of one mercury vapor fixture that lit every night from dark until daylight for at least 30 years without changing the lamp. I believe it still had the original photo eye but i am not sure. I have seen lots of other vapor lights and none of them ever lasted long at all. Some metal arc didn't have more than a year 24 hours a day. I am sure you know some of the bulbs are either bu for base up to horizonal or bd for base down to horizontal. The heating elements in the bulb will sag and the supports for it are designed for the direction of mounting they will work in the wrong direction but their lifespan will not be long. The one we had on the farm was both furnished by the power company and we were charged a flat rate monthly charge. We never had one anywhere else. The small town I live in has several vapor lights that are furnished by the utility company and the city is charged a flat rate per light.

[@robertfakler8564]

I had a similar experience with a mercury vapor light that was too bright. It lit up the neighbors yard too. So I painted the sides of the lens black, so it just shone down on my yard.

[@iowaphotos9107]

Cool to see you rebuild and reuse an old MV light.. One word of caution is that MV puts off a ton of UV light and can damage your eyes and skin if too close to you. I believe the recommendation is 16' away from people in continuous exposure. I look foreword to future videos.

[@brnmcc01]

That's why these lights have such heavy thick glass around them. It really cuts down the amount of bad UV light, plus acts as a shrapnel guard if the lamp blows up. If you actually want the UV light, then the lamps have a quartz glass.

[@Ange1166]

enjoyed the video well deliverd

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@keeperofthegood]

IF you can purchase a replacement bulb and starter for this do so. Put them it in a closet somewhere. There are shops here with the indoor store version that have found they simply cannot source replacements any longer and there are very very few places still using anything other than LED now (outside Toronto Ontario Canada, this tech availability and legality is highly variable across nations).

[@albinklein7680]

Maybe those fixtures were used in a big building or a parking lot or something like that. At least where I live those are centrally compensated in the transformer room in the supermarket/factory where they are installed. Hence no capacitors in the individual fixtures.

[@W4BIN]

I did enjoy it, very much. Ron W4BIN

[@W4BIN]

The ballast is not consuming much power, the lamp is fed a higher Voltage at a lower Current. Ron W4BIN

[@28YorkshireRose12]

Wow! What a great logo on that casting, but such a shame that the only person to see it would be the guy who installed it. I was just thinking, it's a good job the front of your barn isn't painted white - otherwise it would be visible from space! That would certainly light up the back of the house.

[@planejet42]

Great job on that old fixture! I like the warm amber color of those old mercury vapor bulbs. Did you use stainless fasteners to mount it to the barn? Also, as others have mentioned, you could direct wire the fixture and bypass the ballast and throw an LED bulb in there. Wouldn't be the same, but would save you some money.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

Thanks for checking it out! No SS but I did put a blob of anti seize on the three bolts holding the arm to the bracket.

[@Rudofaux]

That's pretty darn engenius idea for a bracket.

[@GrandsonofKong]

Nice job Mike!! Very clean restore and install. You are going to be up to your knees in bugs from the light for half the year! Also cool to see how it lights up the area when you have snow on the ground. Question: Out where I live, a detached building has to have it's own ground rod set-up off the breaker box even when fed from a house panel breaker. Same where you are?

[@starpuss]

I always Wanted to mount a LED Setup into one of them!

[@cpufrost]

Yes it's easy to do, direct wire LED. No warmup time and no restrike wait if power is interrupted. For the power a 175W lamp uses including ballast one could have over 25,000 lumens! And if that's too bright a dimmable LED is an option. And if you really want to get fancy you can make it so the color temperature shifts according to output mocking an incandescent lamp!

[@kens97sto171]

@Rick Delair I have no idea what LEDs you've been messing with. But there are 30,000 lumen LED flashlights.. Good quality LED outdoor lights are absolutely bright as hell and use a lot less power.

[@cpufrost]

@@kens97sto171 Pretty much. LED is even replacing Xenon and HMI in studio/stage lighting scene which is quite amazing. I'm a huge fan of starting up an old carbon arc rig and there's quite nothing like it TBH. But LED has come a long way and is not going anywhere. Of course there are a lot of cheap Chinese fixtures/modules out there that either totally lie about specs or in the case of OEM packages that are very inadequately designed with longevity in mind. Problem is LEDs unlike incandescent lamps, can be WAY overdriven and not prematurely fail suddenly like their incandescent counterparts. But they will degrade much faster. A properly designed LED module and driver (running well within its designed current and thermal limits) will have better lumen maintenance than anything else, period. The initial cost is high but its ROI is realized over life due to much lower maintenance costs. But if the low bidder is chosen, well you get what you pay for!

[@kens97sto171]

@@cpufrost Absolutely the case. It's an issue of quality. And reliability especially in cheap bulbs. They always claim 50,000 hours or some nonsense. And almost every time it's not the LED itself that fails it's in the supporting electronics or in poor solder joints. But in quality well made LEDs the reliability and longevity is quite good. But you definitely have to be careful what you're purchasing. I definitely love the old carbon arc lamps also. And the Mercury vapors like this. There's definitely something to be said for the old technology. Sometimes the color is better, sometimes it's just the cool factor. But if I'm going to have light bulbs in my home that I'm paying for the electricity for. I'm going to go for what works well and cost me less. As you said the quality bulbs and quality electronics are not cheap.

[@RickBaconsAdventures]

just started the video but audio quality is perfect

[@oldcarnocar]

one neat light

[@dans_Learning_Curve]

Like #52 Thanks for the video! I have one of those in my yard. Not sure if it's as old.

[@Murphyslawfarm]

Very cool

[@somerandomguy3868]

Always liked the MV, what do you figure that fixture weights? nice install

[@RANDALLOLOGY]

Old stuff was built to last but it did use a lot of power. nowadays things use less power and they don't last very long either.

[@SmallEngineMechanic]

That's a fact! Thanks for checking it out!

[@brave1.0]

YEP!!! 100% agree, it's not even that much more efficient, maybe $5 or $10 less, but all the new ILLEDisaster lights are "Made in China" and they won't last forever unlike the Made in USA MV lamps especially the ones Made in USA and the Philips/Westinghouse Lifeguard!

[@TrinomCZ]

@@brave1.0 You can buy high quality chinese LEDs as well, they just aren't cheap. Where do you think all the renown manufacturers make their LED chips? You are right, mainly in China.

[@josepheccles9341]

adding the right cap will surely fix it.

[@angrybill]

Sorry bud but I don't come here for commercials.Someone is getting greedy. I don't know if it is you or KZbin but I have enjoyed your videos for quite a while. Thank you for that enjoyment. I will check back from time to time and see if the commercials are yanked.

[@adrianryan1975]

Can't shed enough light on most subjects...

[@alouisschafer7212]

Fun fact regarding bad power factor: As far as I know a product sold in the EU needs to fulfill some power factor correction requirements like electronic powersupplies above a certain wattage need to feature actice pfc and have at least 0,9 power factor at full load. Best example is a computer power supply. They are implementing these rules to take load off the grid with the increase of loads with rather poor power factor. Is this the same in North America?