I recently purchased a property that came with an 'old' floodlight.
It's on ebay at the moment, but probably deserves a better home than a hipster café so I thought it would be worth seeing if it is of interest to anyone on here?

I'm not sure of the year, but based on the other items with it I'd say pre-80's?
I very tentatively plugged it in... it works for about 10 seconds then trips the house RCD; possibly an earth fault due to some insulation deteriorating?

I'd like to sell it, but also very interested to know a bit about it - namely why someone might have one of these in the shed?!

If anyone is interested or has any info I'd be very grateful.

TIA

Can we see the eBay listing, please..? 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284801401092

I am impressed that that old veteran is still around. The GEC leak transformer says '140 watt sodium lamp' so it was built to take the old SO/H or SOI/H lamps, but it has a 90 watt SOX lamp in it now (should run fine). That leads me to believe that it was made before SOX was introduced in the 1960s.

in the ebay description, you said tripped the electrics. If you meant it blew the fuse it may just need a higher rated fuse to run. but if it actually tripped the breaker, then a litany of possibilities arise. There are a few qualified sparks on the site that would be able to help much more than me

Given your (and the lights) location, it is possible that someone bought this for a good security light in inclement weather. The sodium lamp is excellent at penetrating fog. If it was actually mounted in the shed, then the only real possibility that comes to mind is that they were using it as a darkroom safelight. Or perhaps they were an old light enthusiast.

Unfortunately, while I would love this floodlight, I'm still in school and can't travel far There should be someone else on the site that will take this though

I'd be interested, but living in a 1-bedroom flat with nowhere to fit something this size (and also not having a car to drive several hundred miles to get it), I'll have to pass. Although I'm not a qualified sparky, I've done enough discharge lamp wiring to take a good guess that it's something in the wiring that is causing the breaker to trip, so I'd do a complete rewire from scratch.

Lovely old fixture though, hope someone here does take it off your hands 

If it’s just tripping an RCD, that’s just an earth/neutral fault, so maybe something simple, (the crack in the lamp supply wire could be a suspect)?
Hopefully that brick autoleak is ok, their usually bomb proof 

Interesting fixture! Looking at that ballast I would say this was made sometime in the 1950's.

As others mentioned above the RCD tripping could be due to the old degraded wiring inside the fixture, but it could also be the ballast (or maybe the capacitor) has developed a fault to earth. To check these you would have to disconnect them from the fixture and carry out an insulation resistance test between the terminals to the metal case.

The fact that the RCD isn't tripping immediately is interesting. As Beta 5 suggests, I'd want to do the full gamut of tests on it; insulation resistance, earth continuity, the works. Although replacing all the wiring would be a good start if you don't have access to the right test equipment.

From the photos the ballast looks to be in good condition with no rust or signs of overheating, if it has been stored somewhere damp it would also be worth giving it a good drying out in case any of the old insulation on the cables/terminal blocks or inside the ballast has absorbed any moisture.

Interesting old lamp in there, looks like an early Philips design SOX. I remember these being used as building and area flood lights.

The fact that the RCD isn't tripping immediately is interesting. As Beta 5 suggests, I'd want to do the full gamut of tests on it; insulation resistance, earth continuity, the works. Although replacing all the wiring would be a good start if you don't have access to the right test equipment.

Hi I have a 1950s Genalex 5 foot fluorescent canopy type lamp with bayonet type tube and it did the Same when I first bought it  tripped out the RCD after a few seconds and it was the TCC branded  power factor capacitor leaking to earth due to having a metal can . Shame it is 4 hours away from where I live as that would have been an excellent exhibit at steam shows with my Stationary engine and generator kind regards Bob