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PostPosted: September 7, 2017, 11:26 pm 
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Joined: July 6, 2008, 11:15 am
Posts: 1047
Location: Cave Creek, AZ
I'm helping a lady fix her arena lights and as normal routine, I clean the housings and glass and check the bulbs and supply voltage. Well two of the 3 poles have Sylvania Osram 1500W 240V halogen bulbs in them but they are only feeding it with 120 volts. Checked it with the VOM, across the contacts. Yet they are very bright. According to the manufacturer, it's a 240V bulb.

The third light is on a different circuit breaker, but it's a 240 circuit breaker but they're only using one leg of it. The other side doesn't have any wire in it, so they are feeding 120 to that set of two lights also, and they are very dull, not bright at all.

I was always taught, maybe incorrectly, that you run the fixture at the rated voltage or you would shorten the life of the bulb. What am I missing?

Tom
AKA Sparky

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PostPosted: September 8, 2017, 1:03 am 
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Joined: August 11, 2013, 6:03 am
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Location: CNY
With halogen cycle bulbs, running them at reduced power can make the benefits of the halogen cycle moot.
The quartz capsule walls might not get hot enough, which would cause the tungsten to not recombine onto the filament, and you essentially get a reduced life because it runs as a "normal" bulb.

How much less? That depends on the bulb, run time, filament thickness, and a few things I'm likely forgetting.

Doesn't hurt anything but the life of the bulb.

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PostPosted: September 8, 2017, 10:20 am 
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Joined: July 6, 2008, 11:15 am
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Location: Cave Creek, AZ
Thanks Walt. It dawned on me last night that the pole with the two dim lamps probably has the sockets wired in series rather than parallel. Found other problems last nigh, like no ground rod, loose wire set screws, GFCI wired incorrectly etc...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG16m2e4O6I


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