Hello dear sirs and madams!

I have got three vintage Osram HBO 200W/2 lamps on the way in the mail. NOS complete with even the original shipping cardboard box. Very nice find for just 100kr (about 10$-ish). I got them to simply admire the craftmanship, gaze upon the mercury in the arctube and get a nice display item.

But then i thought... Why not light them up? Getting the specialized ballasts these require would be extremely hard. Is there anyway i can light these up without (super) specialized equipment? Im on 230V mains. Any ideas?

Not advisable to be honest, due to the high UV radiation output and very high internal pressure when hot, but the gear would have to be a set that delivers a low arc voltage, I think nominal is something like 57 volt ?

Not advisable to be honest, due to the high UV radiation output and very high internal pressure when hot, but the gear would have to be a set that delivers a low arc voltage, I think nominal is something like 57 volt ?

Yes according to the Osram datasheet, 57V AC or DC.

Could you not block out the UV with some hard glass?

The pressure is my biggest concern, if a bulb like that shatters... My wife would be steaming mad at me!

We ran a 250 watt ME mercury lamp at one of our meet ups once, (sadly I can’t show you the photos here as our other lighting forum won’t let me download my own photo for some reason)?, but we ran it on a 400 watt HPS ballast and all viewed it through a welding mask!, the arc was very interesting though, it had a plasma round it that looked like a green candle flame when running, quite a thing to see first hand!

We ran a 250 watt ME mercury lamp at one of our meet ups once, (sadly I can’t show you the photos here as our other lighting forum won’t let me download my own photo for some reason)?, but we ran it on a 400 watt HPS ballast and all viewed it through a welding mask!, the arc was very interesting though, it had a plasma round it that looked like a green candle flame when running, quite a thing to see first hand!

So how would one go about to run a 200W/2 HBO lamp with standard equipment?

James would be the guy to ask, it was his idea to run the ME on a 400watt high pressure sodium ballast, probably the same gear would suffice?
The problem is though, a HBO is a bare discharge tube, and the UV radiation would be more dangerous even if behind glass??

I believe this would probably run fairly close to its design parameters on a 250W HPS circuit, with ignitor since there is no auxiliary ignition electrode in the 200W/2.  It would be slightly under-run but that is no bad thing, to reduce its risk of explosion!  Make sure to run it vertically though and with the long seal uppermost, and in a well ventilated area because there can be some ozone production during run-up.

I believe this would probably run fairly close to its design parameters on a 250W HPS circuit, with ignitor since there is no auxiliary ignition electrode in the 200W/2.  It would be slightly under-run but that is no bad thing, to reduce its risk of explosion!  Make sure to run it vertically though and with the long seal uppermost, and in a well ventilated area because there can be some ozone production during run-up.

Thank you for the advise James. Would ordinary hard glass be enough to filter out the dangerous UV-radiation?

Realistically, how big is the chance of explosion in these lamps, they have been stored in their NOS plastic boxes sice i assume late 70's or early 80's. So the chance of them having scratches and such in the glass is minimal.