Mercury vapor lamps' longevity

Author

Topic: Mercury vapor lamps' longevity (Read 4337 times)

davidnonledfan
Guest

is it just me or is there a ton of mercury vapor lamps around the world that are still working fine more than 50 years later? I would like to know.

Logged

WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Member

Offline

Gender: Male

View Posts
View Gallery

HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!

From what I am aware of, I have seen that some of Westinghouse’s Lifeguard mercury vapor lamps and some of GE’s bonusline mercury vapor lamps have been known to last more than 50 years in continuous service when driven at full power on their correct ballasts. In addition, there was some member in Switzerland who also observed mercury vapor lamps operating for multiple decades in continuous service while being underdriven.

Logged

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

davidnonledfan
Guest

At least they were still working and hopefully they were lighting up the road enough still. It's completely normal for any lamp that is made to last forever to depreciate in lumens by half when it is in service for so long. At lest these lamps will outlast those that banned them in 2008!

Keep these old bulbs going!

Logged

joseph_125
Member

Offline

Gender: Male

View Posts
View Gallery

From field observations, the 175w lamps seem to last the longest.

There's a mall here with a few 175w mercury cans they forgot to retrofit to 100w MH that still has the original 175w Sylvania /DX cleartops from 1978. Still decently bright too but not as much as a new lamp. 100w lamps seem to dim quicker and I haven't seen any old 250w or 400w lamps in use.

« Last Edit: February 20, 2022, 07:09:47 PM by joseph_125 »

Logged

bulb_tester2009
Member

Offline

Gender: Male

View Posts
View Gallery

Resolutely crack down on inferior LED lighting!!

感觉应该和一般的MH

差不多，20000小时左右，但是SBMV

的寿命要比MV

短的多，只有5000小时，因为其灯丝寿命并不长。
The feeling should be similar to ordinary MH

, about 20,000 hours, but the life of SBMV

is much shorter than MV

, only 5,000 hours, because its filament life is not long.

Logged

I've been collecting light bulbs since I was 2 years old and I've been collecting them ever since.

One of the few Chinese users here
Note:
Bulb base in China:E12(CES) E14(SES) B22d(BC) E27(ES) E40(GES)

Rommie
Guest

Mercury lamps can last an incredible amount of time, but the light output usually drops dramatically as the lamp approaches a realistic EOL, meaning it will still be consuming the same amount of electricity as it did when new, but it won't be giving much if any useful light. We used to have an MV post top outside here, but by the time it was eventually replaced, you could hardly tell it was switched on

Logged

Foxtronix
Member

Offline

Gender: Male

View Posts
View Gallery

Formerly "TiCoune66". Also known here as Vince.

Chemically, mercury lamps are pretty stable, much more than other HID lamps. The only definite EOL mechanism I know of has something to do with hydrogen-related contamination in the arctube. The exact workings of it are beyond my knowledge of HID lamps to be honest LOL.

I also witnessed many mercury lamps still operating years past their design end-of-life. In fact there are still quite a few in the area where I live!

Logged

Rommie
Guest

Indeed, but as I said, they continue to consume the same power as they did when new, even though there can be little or no light coming from them, so it's not really economical to let them go on for too long.

Logged

arcblue
Member

Offline

View Posts
View Gallery

Indeed, I've seen 1970s 175w Westinghouse and Sylvania lamps STILL in use today in dusk-to-dawn or even mostly 24/7 service! Granted it's quite dim, but still working! So they can easily keep going after 100,000 hours. Other wattages seem to dim out or die faster than the 175w of the same era. More modern 175w Chinese made mercury lamps often quit after just a few years of nightly use before dimming much at all.

Logged

I'm lampin...

joseph_125
Member

Offline

Gender: Male

View Posts
View Gallery

I finally remembered to bring my camera with me and here's a shot of one of a old recessed can here with a 175w Sylvania cleartop mercury lamp still in operation. It's old enough to be a /C lamp which was a pleasant surprise. The 175w Sylvanias from that era seem to linger on forever in a dimmed state. I haven't really seen old lamps from other brands and wattages so I'd reckon those were probably EOL a long time ago and replaced.

Logged