Hid Lamp Voltage

Manufacturers use various designs of hid lamps.

Hid lamp voltage.

Here is a quick rundown on how a metal halide ballast operates. High intensity discharge lamps hid lamps are a type of electrical gas discharge lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc tube. This tube is filled with noble gas and often also contains suitable metal or metal salts. A resistor or thermal switch in series with the starting electrode now blocks voltage to the starting electrode so it does not arc and burn out during normal lamp.

High intensity discharge lamps carry a large amount of electrical discharge to create light. The hid ignitor boosts voltage coming from the ballast to around 15 000 to 25 000 volts to jump the air gap between the two electrodes and light the arc. Hid lamps produce a very bright white light. High pressure sodium hid lamps have limited light pollution compared to led and metal halide.

Once the arc is lit. A metal halide lamp is an electrical lamp that produces light by an electric arc through a gaseous mixture of vaporized mercury and metal halides compounds of metals with bromine or iodine it is a type of high intensity discharge hid gas discharge lamp. Regardless of the design they generally require a high voltage spark of up to 25 000 volts to start and a high operating voltage e g 40 85 volts ac to maintain light. Throw a lot of light a long way.

First the line voltage goes into the ballast. Developed in the 1960s they are similar to mercury vapor lamps but contain additional metal halide compounds in the quartz arc tube. The metal halide and high pressure sodium ballasts also incorporate wave shaping of the open circuit voltage to provide a higher peak voltage than a normal sine wave. Historically this has been a great application for factories that need minimal light but operate their bulbs 24 7.

This peak voltage along with the ignitor when used is used to start the lamp and control the lamp current crest factor typically 1 60 1 65. Despite their terrible light quality low pressure sodium lamps last a very long time. It must provide a constant 35 watts at 70 to 110 volts. And metal halide lamps can improve color rendering and provide light diffusion.

Another downside comes from the lack of backward compatibility between hid lights and tungsten halogen headlamps hence special optics are used to collect and distribute the light on hid lamps. Gas discharge lamps an electric lamp. Ballast a device required by electric discharge light sources such as fluorescent or hid lamps to regulate voltage and current supplied to the lamp during start and throughout operation. Ansi code american national standards institute ansi code that indicates the electrical operating designation of the lamp which must match that of the ballast.

The job of the ballast in this case is to drive and sustain the power output toward the lamps.