What voltage are they?
overload
I have a client with an industrial building divided into individual suites. There are 10 250 watt hps wallpacks around the perimeter. 9 are on a 12 wire ckt and 1 is on a ckt by itself. It was an incompetent electrical job. I wired a pc and contactor to eliminate timeclock problems. The ckt carrying the mojority trips from time to time. Last trip I amprobef it and noticed fluctuations where draw accelerated to 23 amps and decelerated to 16 amps.
Ballast ???
Ballast ???
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
Those numbers are close.
I would divide the lights up to get the circuits more even.
I would divide the lights up to get the circuits more even.
they are not individually photo- celled are they? that could be a problem of when how many came on
Your seeing those fluctuations because as your probing the circuit, some lamps (probably bad lamps if the circuits been energized for over 10min) are trying to ignite, and when they ignite you see the fluctuation. If the lamps, or ballast are bad they will continue to try and "Re-Strike" which will keep causing that spike over and over again.Shockdoc said:I have a client with an industrial building divided into individual suites. There are 10 250 watt hps wallpacks around the perimeter. 9 are on a 12 wire ckt and 1 is on a ckt by itself. It was an incompetent electrical job. I wired a pc and contactor to eliminate timeclock problems. The ckt carrying the mojority trips from time to time. Last trip I amprobef it and noticed fluctuations where draw accelerated to 23 amps and decelerated to 16 amps. Ballast ???
When you turned them all on and checked. Did you literally just check each to see if it's lit and then walk away, or did you let them stay energized for about 15min and make sure none of the ballasts "thermal" overload went off, none of the lamps stuck in ignition phase, etc?
better idea, same result as what i was thinking:thumbup:Your seeing those fluctuations because as your probing the circuit, some lamps (probably bad lamps if the circuits been energized for over 10min) are trying to ignite, and when they ignite you see the fluctuation. If the lamps, or ballast are bad they will continue to try and "Re-Strike" which will keep causing that spike over and over again.
When you turned them all on and checked. Did you literally just check each to see if it's lit and then walk away, or did you let them stay energized for about 15min and make sure none of the ballasts "thermal" overload went off, none of the lamps stuck in ignition phase, etc?
1 - 7 of 7 Posts
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