Thanks! I got help from numerous people to make this restoration possible. The fixture came from Joe Maurath Jr. My grandpa repainted it with real automobile paint. Joe Wan from Ontario had the NEMA tag made for me (and also had those M-400A2 labels made for our A2s). Don Scalf created the new refractor door hinge keepers (which double as ballast door screw retainers). And Tony is going to help me find a new terminal block and latch for the fixture. All these helping ands to ensure this light looks like new again.
Thanks! Yeah lookin' good now. Those clips you crafted made all the difference! Those little basic strap metal clips look like nothing but boy are they important!
Yep, still got the orginal ballast. The capacitor on this fried (which is why it was removed) but it was just a power factor-correcting capacitor so it's not essential to the circuit, so I just bypassed it and the fixture works perfectly now.
It's an NPF reactor ballast. Most low wattage HPS ballasts are NPF reactor ballasts are. Early low wattage HPS ballasts tended to be HPF but low wattage 240V MV ballasts tended to be NPF. Utility companies generally don't care about the power factor of their street lights, they just want the cheapest fixtures so for mercury vapor, the cheapest ballasts are 240V reactors and for low wattage (150W and under) HPS, 120V reactors are the cheapest. For 200+W HPS, 240V reactors would be the cheapest but they're not common. Not even sure if they're made. Reactor ballasts are always the cheapest since they only involve one coil (which also makes them the most efficient). Since MV lamps (except for I think 700 and 1000W) run at about 100-130V, MV reactor ballasts have to be 240V and since 35-150W HPS run at 55V, reactors are 120V. For a 120V MV ballast, an extra coil is needed (which is a reactance ballast) or a CWA ballast (which has a capacitor in series with the lamp) can be used. I personally try to avoid capacitors at all costs since they're just one more component to fail, but caps offer better power factor and with a lot of higher wattage stuff are required.
My 50W HPS OVC, 100W HPS M-250R1, and 150W HPS OV-15TD all have 120V reactor ballasts. My 100W MV M-250A has a 120V reactance ballast (its original ballast, which I have, is a 240V reactor). My OV-10IB has a 175W MV 120V reactance ballast. My 175W MV M-250R1 has a 120/240V CWA ballast (four coils) and my 175W MV M-250R and 400W MV M-400 split door (and the 400W MV silver M-400 for Marco) all have the same style GE 120/240V CWA ballast. The 175W MV M-250R (the one in my backyard now) was originally a 100W MV with a 240V reactor. I still have the original ballast. My Westinghouse RMA NEMA head has a 120V 100W MV reactance ballast. The M-400A2s (mine and Darren's) both have 120/208/240/277V replacement ballast kit ballasts (CWA). My 250W ITT HPS ballast is a 120V single tap CWA ballast (well, I think it's CWA...) and the Westinghouse 400W HPS ballast is a 120/208/240/277V CWI ballast, which has the line voltage totally isolated from the load voltage (I think that means even the neutral is involved in the ballast). CWI ballasts are HUGE and have the highest ballast losses but regulate lamp current the best in areas where line voltage dips and spikes. CWI ballasts require capacitors just like CWA. With reactance and reactor ballasts, the capacitor is optional and is only for correcting the power factor.
Okay so I now have a few Q's:
-Wouldn't they want HPF of some sort if possible for streetlights? I guess maybe streetlights are a relatively small portion of the electrical usage in a utility's coverage area but doesn't poor power factor require higher gage wire, hence more cost?
-So would something like a 1000w HPS HAVE to be HPF?
-So CWI would be really well suited to a situation like mine, where line voltage dips/spikes whenever anything drawing more than a couple hundred watts is turned on/off?
-So you're saying something like a 175w HX-NPF mercury vapor ballast in a yardblaster could have a capacitor added to the line side to improve it's power factor?
Utilities already use really thick wire so it doesn't make a difference in that application. And usually there are only a few street lights max running off a transformer since there's usually a transformer every few poles.
I don't know but I think they'd be HPF. In the case of high wattage HID, usually when there's one there's many so HPF would be better.
Yeah CWI is perfect for your situation. Older medium wattage HPS ballasts were often CWIs through the 80s. Very heay ballasts! (which made for very heavy fixtures, a 400W HPS from the 70s could weigh as much as 60 pounds or so!) 1000W HPS M-1000s weighed as much as 90 pounds!
Yep, just like a 14-15-20W preheat choke, a yardblaster ballast (which is a reactance [HX]) can have a capacitor added across the hot and neutral before the ballast to improve power factor (doesn't change ballast factor, just improves power factor). Ill upload a diagram if you'd like.
BTW, answered your question in the last comment. Yes, a 14-15-20W preheat choke is essentially a smaller sized MV or HPS reactor. Both are NPF without a capacitor and HPF when the correct capacitos is added. You need to add a specific cap value but I don't know what that value is... Here's Sylvania's article regarding power factor for ballasts. Note how utilities bill customers for watts instead of VA. If they billed for volt-amps, CFLs would actually be considered LESS efficient than advertised. And magnetic PL adpaters would be even LESS efficient than incandescent for the same amount of lumens! Note that LPF is not used when discussing ballasts. LPF and NPF are interchangeable terms (as far as I know) but HID and fluorescent ballasts are considered either NPF (without a capacitor) or HPF (with a capacitor).
Here is an article by Eaton (Cooper) about power factor. Note how Sylvania said that utility companies charge for watts (actual power) while Cooper said they charge based on power factor. Sylvania is correct in most cases. Utilities sometimes charge industrial customers a surcharge for poor power factor but they do not measure volt-amperes, only watts used (they'll test the industrial building to find their power factor and if it's below 0.8, a surcharge is added to the monthly bill. How much depends on the utility). Cooper's article is mostly geared toward industrial applications where motors are present.
So a generator (either one like yours or the power company's generator) produces volt-amps. For load that has a power factor of 1.0 (incandescent lamps are the only type of lighting to have 1.0PF), the volt-amps and watts are equal. So your generator has to work just as hard to power a 13W PL adapter as it does to power a 60W incanescent. Watts are reduced and current drawn is reduced but volt amps is about the same because PL adapters have such a power power factor. You can add a PF-correcting capacitor to a fixture that operates a PL adapter but you have to make sure to use ONLY that adapter and that wattage lamp. CFLs typically have a power factor of 0.4-0.6 so the generator has to produce the equivalent of about 30 watts to run the 13W CFL (it's only using 13W but the generator works as hard as it would need to for a 30W lamp just to run the 13W lamp). That's my understanding of it at least. Trent or others on the LG would know more than I do though.
Yeah fortunately electric companies only bill for watts used lol. Funny how in terms of LPW incandescent is at the bottom of the list but in terms of power factor, no other light source can top incandescent.
I know, that is kinda ironic! Well halogen would do the same PF but slightly better LPW...I like the slightly whiter light too but they lifespan simply IS NOT THERE!
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My 50W HPS OVC, 100W HPS M-250R1, and 150W HPS OV-15TD all have 120V reactor ballasts. My 100W MV M-250A has a 120V reactance ballast (its original ballast, which I have, is a 240V reactor). My OV-10IB has a 175W MV 120V reactance ballast. My 175W MV M-250R1 has a 120/240V CWA ballast (four coils) and my 175W MV M-250R and 400W MV M-400 split door (and the 400W MV silver M-400 for Marco) all have the same style GE 120/240V CWA ballast. The 175W MV M-250R (the one in my backyard now) was originally a 100W MV with a 240V reactor. I still have the original ballast. My Westinghouse RMA NEMA head has a 120V 100W MV reactance ballast. The M-400A2s (mine and Darren's) both have 120/208/240/277V replacement ballast kit ballasts (CWA). My 250W ITT HPS ballast is a 120V single tap CWA ballast (well, I think it's CWA...) and the Westinghouse 400W HPS ballast is a 120/208/240/277V CWI ballast, which has the line voltage totally isolated from the load voltage (I think that means even the neutral is involved in the ballast). CWI ballasts are HUGE and have the highest ballast losses but regulate lamp current the best in areas where line voltage dips and spikes. CWI ballasts require capacitors just like CWA. With reactance and reactor ballasts, the capacitor is optional and is only for correcting the power factor.
-Wouldn't they want HPF of some sort if possible for streetlights? I guess maybe streetlights are a relatively small portion of the electrical usage in a utility's coverage area but doesn't poor power factor require higher gage wire, hence more cost?
-So would something like a 1000w HPS HAVE to be HPF?
-So CWI would be really well suited to a situation like mine, where line voltage dips/spikes whenever anything drawing more than a couple hundred watts is turned on/off?
-So you're saying something like a 175w HX-NPF mercury vapor ballast in a yardblaster could have a capacitor added to the line side to improve it's power factor?
I don't know but I think they'd be HPF. In the case of high wattage HID, usually when there's one there's many so HPF would be better.
Yeah CWI is perfect for your situation. Older medium wattage HPS ballasts were often CWIs through the 80s. Very heay ballasts! (which made for very heavy fixtures, a 400W HPS from the 70s could weigh as much as 60 pounds or so!) 1000W HPS M-1000s weighed as much as 90 pounds!
Yep, just like a 14-15-20W preheat choke, a yardblaster ballast (which is a reactance [HX]) can have a capacitor added across the hot and neutral before the ballast to improve power factor (doesn't change ballast factor, just improves power factor). Ill upload a diagram if you'd like.
Here is an article by Eaton (Cooper) about power factor. Note how Sylvania said that utility companies charge for watts (actual power) while Cooper said they charge based on power factor. Sylvania is correct in most cases. Utilities sometimes charge industrial customers a surcharge for poor power factor but they do not measure volt-amperes, only watts used (they'll test the industrial building to find their power factor and if it's below 0.8, a surcharge is added to the monthly bill. How much depends on the utility). Cooper's article is mostly geared toward industrial applications where motors are present.
So a generator (either one like yours or the power company's generator) produces volt-amps. For load that has a power factor of 1.0 (incandescent lamps are the only type of lighting to have 1.0PF), the volt-amps and watts are equal. So your generator has to work just as hard to power a 13W PL adapter as it does to power a 60W incanescent. Watts are reduced and current drawn is reduced but volt amps is about the same because PL adapters have such a power power factor. You can add a PF-correcting capacitor to a fixture that operates a PL adapter but you have to make sure to use ONLY that adapter and that wattage lamp. CFLs typically have a power factor of 0.4-0.6 so the generator has to produce the equivalent of about 30 watts to run the 13W CFL (it's only using 13W but the generator works as hard as it would need to for a 30W lamp just to run the 13W lamp). That's my understanding of it at least. Trent or others on the LG would know more than I do though.
Thanks George.