Author Topic: Shipping Off my Metal Halide Wallpacks...  (Read 1115 times)
suzukir122
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suzukir123
Shipping Off my Metal Halide Wallpacks... « on: June 13, 2024, 03:07:30 PM » Author: suzukir122
... to any fellow lighting enthusiasts who may be able to help install caps into them. I'm not sure who would be willing to help, but the help would
be greatly appreciated. I'd have to know I can trust whomever I ship it off to though.
I've got eight 50w Magnetic MH wallpacks, and all eight of them are using low power factor magnetic ballasts... so the amp numbers do concern me if
I'm running all eight of them at the same time, since they're running off of one plug outlet. I'm hoping to make the majority of the fixtures HPF...
all of them, if I can... so that I can reduce the amp numbers and run them all safely, much more often.

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RRK
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Roman


Re: Shipping Off my Metal Halide Wallpacks... « Reply #1 on: June 14, 2024, 12:40:42 PM » Author: RRK
It seems that we had a discussion with WorldwideHIDcollector some time ago about some mysterious board member who has eight LPF 50W MH wallpacks and who worries about 16A powerline getting overloaded. ;)

The idea actually is that you probably have nothing to worry. At worst case, if all those luminaires really consume 1.6 nameplate amps, line current will be just 12.8A which is absolutely fine for 16 amp circuit. And I think 1.6A is somewhat overestimation, these are just 50W luminaries, one amp or so is more realistic even at quite bad PF.

Do you have any real problems (hot wires, breakers tripping) ? Can you measure the current actually consumed, all luminaires or just one?


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RRK
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Re: Shipping Off my Metal Halide Wallpacks... « Reply #2 on: June 14, 2024, 01:01:32 PM » Author: RRK
And if you are still worrying, there is absolutely no need to mod all the luminaires, in fact you need only a single PFC capacitor installed anywhere in your circuit in parallel to the luminaires. A bit hard to calculate without knowing actual current consumed, for 120V line I think some film capacitor in the ballpark of 120 microfarades capable of 120V AC or more is probably OK to kill most of the reactive current that troubles you.
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suzukir122
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Re: Shipping Off my Metal Halide Wallpacks... « Reply #3 on: June 14, 2024, 01:58:49 PM » Author: suzukir122
Yeah I read about that mysterious board member with the eight MH Wallpacks. He's a strange dude... what's his name again? Suzukir111?  :wndr:...  :lol:

In all seriousness though, the amp numbers should be a little more than 12.8 (if those Wallpacks are truly using 1.6 amps) since I also use a motorcycle
battery charger. I'm not sure how much amps that little plug adapter uses... I'll have to check, but I'm sure its not much. There's also the garage door
opener, which supposedly uses 1.0 amps.
The only other problem that I've had while using these Wallpacks is power flicker, when someone else is using a good amount of electricity. (Opening their
garage door, using an air compressor, etc.) This concerns me a bit as well.
If all is good and 12.8 amps truly isn't much for a 15 amp circuit, I think I'll just roll with it and see how things go. The longest time I've used these
Wallpacks is around 5 hours, when I performed my first oil change on my car. All eight of them were in use during this time.



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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

RRK
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Roman


Re: Shipping Off my Metal Halide Wallpacks... « Reply #4 on: June 14, 2024, 04:50:15 PM » Author: RRK
I think these wallpacks can briefly consume somewhere close to 1.6A stated, but only for a couple of minutes while the lamp is running up and arc voltage is low.

For a properly made circuit (someone not cheated on wire sizes) running 12.8A on 15A circuit is certainly OK.

Why guessing? You can easily borrow a current clamp or that Kill-a-watt thingy to measure exact consumption. Even my toy current clamp I got for fun for about $6 shows current within +- 5% of the real value.

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