MH replacment
- Thread starter jelly
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jelly
Well-Known Member
Ok i was looking around and I found radium has
Mean service life 4000 h
Info about service life12B50, 50Hz
Lamp survival factor at 2000h 0.99
Lamp survival factor at 4000h 0.93
Lamp survival factor at 6000h 0.74
With that said you would get 6.5 to 13 months out of them if you run then 10 or 5 hours if you keep it at the 99%. Can anyone verify?
Mean service life 4000 h
Info about service life12B50, 50Hz
Lamp survival factor at 2000h 0.99
Lamp survival factor at 4000h 0.93
Lamp survival factor at 6000h 0.74
With that said you would get 6.5 to 13 months out of them if you run then 10 or 5 hours if you keep it at the 99%. Can anyone verify?
Dana may have more to add....
My years in using MH and hanging around with Pat from Pfo a long time ago....much of it not sober....
I (sort of) recall
-all ballasts run all bulbs slightly different usually shortening up its life whether over or under driven
-every time a bulb is turned on, a little bit of its life is sucked out it...how ever little that is. It still adds up
By cutting the hours used, helps but turning it on/off more often will lessen its life some
-run into many times over the years, many had bulbs not light up right away or continually starting up and then just turning off because of the ballast. Cane down to too many things were plugged into that outlet/circuit and there literally was not enough power to ignite the bulb properly. This can't be good on the bulbs life
-Many run the bulbs too long regardless. Not enough par meters out there to easily check
-Sonjay will have some info in his light/ballast/bulb testing report from years ago
That is all I can think of right now.......
-Another one I thought of not related, but MH people will be reading this want to keep in mind...is to -(never-ever)- have the power cords from the ballast to the bulb be over 15'. Not sure if the lower wattage mattered, definitely was for 250/400 watts
Good luck, Dirk
My years in using MH and hanging around with Pat from Pfo a long time ago....much of it not sober....
I (sort of) recall
-all ballasts run all bulbs slightly different usually shortening up its life whether over or under driven
-every time a bulb is turned on, a little bit of its life is sucked out it...how ever little that is. It still adds up
By cutting the hours used, helps but turning it on/off more often will lessen its life some
-run into many times over the years, many had bulbs not light up right away or continually starting up and then just turning off because of the ballast. Cane down to too many things were plugged into that outlet/circuit and there literally was not enough power to ignite the bulb properly. This can't be good on the bulbs life
-Many run the bulbs too long regardless. Not enough par meters out there to easily check
-Sonjay will have some info in his light/ballast/bulb testing report from years ago
That is all I can think of right now.......
-Another one I thought of not related, but MH people will be reading this want to keep in mind...is to -(never-ever)- have the power cords from the ballast to the bulb be over 15'. Not sure if the lower wattage mattered, definitely was for 250/400 watts
Good luck, Dirk
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I expect them to lose power and I do not care. I change them when I see that I am not getting the growth that I was, or the coralline starts to grow faster (high intensity light inhibits purple coralline for me).
It depends on the bulb, but I have no issues with Radiums on M80 for a year to 15 months. Phoenix 14K at two years. Hamilton 10K on M80 (overdriven) at a year, but absolutely no more. XM 10K on IceCap back in the day were a year as well. I can afford to change them and do not mind, so this schedule is based purely on performance over my tanks. I run mine all day, 10 hours on the display.
The Radium Service time seems right... 10 hours a day for 400 days... or 8 hours a day for 15 months, or so.
The reason that this is so hard is because every bulb is different and every ballast combination is different.
It depends on the bulb, but I have no issues with Radiums on M80 for a year to 15 months. Phoenix 14K at two years. Hamilton 10K on M80 (overdriven) at a year, but absolutely no more. XM 10K on IceCap back in the day were a year as well. I can afford to change them and do not mind, so this schedule is based purely on performance over my tanks. I run mine all day, 10 hours on the display.
The Radium Service time seems right... 10 hours a day for 400 days... or 8 hours a day for 15 months, or so.
The reason that this is so hard is because every bulb is different and every ballast combination is different.
