Hello everyone, I was wondering if it is possible to wire an HPS or LPS lamp in series with an incandescent lamp as a ballast. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!

Yes it's possible and it actually works rather better than with high pressure mercury.  The reignition voltage peaks on each half-cycle are lower for HPS lamps than HPM so it is easier to run on a resistive ballast.  It is especially good with standard xenon-filled HPS lamps.  With the neon-filled types (penning-start, which also self-ignite with a tungsten ballast) the thermal losses from the arc are much higher, due to the increased thermal conductivity of neon vs xenon, and those do then show more problems on a resistive ballast.  But are easier to start!

Thanks for the info!

Yes it's possible and it actually works rather better than with high pressure mercury.  The reignition voltage peaks on each half-cycle are lower for HPS lamps than HPM so it is easier to run on a resistive ballast.  It is especially good with standard xenon-filled HPS lamps.  With the neon-filled types (penning-start, which also self-ignite with a tungsten ballast) the thermal losses from the arc are much higher, due to the increased thermal conductivity of neon vs xenon, and those do then show more problems on a resistive ballast.  But are easier to start!

Never knew that the penning start lamps can be operated with resistive ballasts.

Yes it's possible and it actually works rather better than with high pressure mercury.  The reignition voltage peaks on each half-cycle are lower for HPS lamps than HPM so it is easier to run on a resistive ballast.  It is especially good with standard xenon-filled HPS lamps.  With the neon-filled types (penning-start, which also self-ignite with a tungsten ballast) the thermal losses from the arc are much higher, due to the increased thermal conductivity of neon vs xenon, and those do then show more problems on a resistive ballast.  But are easier to start!

are you sure about that James? I hope you dont mind me saying but it sounds like you have got that back to front, AFAIK mercury lamps have a lower re-ignition voltage then HPS lamps, and this in itself is why no one ever commercialised a self-ballasted HPS lamp

certainly in my own experience with a oscilloscope, on standard magnetic ballasts, I note that a HPS lamp will have distinctive re-ignition peak, compared to a much smoother waveform of a Mercury lamp

and many years ago when I tried to incandescent ballast a HPS lamp in the past (a 35W SON-E 85V Sylvania HPS lamp in series with a 220V 200W GLS lamp), it always lead to the HPS lamp extinguishing, since the resistive ballast lacked the phase shift that keeps a HPS lamp going on a magnetic ballast

@James:
With the arc between two electrodes (so e.g. with MH's) you are likely right,
but isn't the presence of the auxiliary probe with its resistor effectively reducing the reignition voltage way below the normal arc (by providing ionization aid each reignition), so becoming THE thing that makes the arc really that stable so to allow the SBMV to work at all?

Of course, I'm talking mainly about "230V" style SBMV (so concept-wise rather regular probe start MV burner with a filament in series in the outer), admit dunno what mechanism is at play with the "120V" preheat style lamps...

@James: I've seen once someone in Youtube trying to light a HPS lamp on an incandescent ballast, and his lamp extinguished during the warm up.