OT - sodium lamps.

Excellent as long as you don't want to take pics by their yellow light. ttfn Roland

Their light in factories is pathetic, take a long while to warm up apart from that they are ok :-))

Mart> Excellent as long as you don't want to take pics by their yellow > light. ttfn

Just the lamps or the control gear as well? Mind I don't know what the control gear for this sort of lamp is, it might be no more than that for a bog standard florry...

High pressure or low pressure Kim? The HP ones are either frosted elliptical bulbs, or clear tubular with a single internal arc tube. They give a golden yellow light. The LP ones are much longer, with a U shaped arc tube inside, in which you can see globs of metallic sodium. They emit a monochromatic yellow light. The control gear is different for each. IMHO even the smallest sizes will be *far* too bright for a porch light. You'd be much better off using an energy saving fluorescent in your fitting. I'd be happy to take the sodium lamps off your hands however :-)

Regards

Philip T-E

Oddball.

OTOH, I once picked up 50 sets at 2 quid each (shades and bulbs inc.) I've only ever used a few sets (two barns), but I broke even.

Their yellowness does make them almost entirely useless!

One is rated at 35w the other at 55 & from your description, low pressure.

I connected a plug to both earlier. One made a curious fizzing noise from the back of the lamp - I think the starter's gone.

The other fired up straight away & took the characteristically long time to warm up. I had it in the kitchen & was watching TV, so only looked at it through the open doorway from time to time - suddenly, this 55 watt lamp was too bright to look at! I think you are right, Philip, too bright for a porch light, but I'm cogitating on it.

What would *you* do with it ?

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

From experience, I'd pile them in a spare shed and ignore them for several years 8-)

Have you an outside area that needs illumination for long periods? And I mean need as in working/seeing rather than any false "security" use.

I don't know what your house arrangement is but I have one earmarked for fitting into the pitch of my roof to light the back garden. I don't have neighbours either. As you say, frugal on electricity but don't connect them to a PIR. They will never get up to full brightness.

John

light pollution end of dark skies ...

Actually, as far as astronomers are concerened, low pressure sodium lamps don't present much of a problem. Being essentially monochromatic, its very simple to filter out their light. HIgh pressure sodium lamps, and those having a more continuous spectrum present msch more of a problem. To the naked eye, sodium glow over towns and cities *is* very intrusive, especially as the output from a low pressure lamp coincides with the colour the eye is most sensitive to. As always, for anything lamp related,

Regards

Philip T-E

You should see the light from the 1000W halogen over the front garden/drive.

They say the truth is out there and I want to see it before it sees me.

John

John,

Ive got one of those also, it turns night into day but have you ever watched your meter trying to unscrew itself off of the wall when the light is on :-))

Mart>> light pollution end of dark skies ...

If it was around here you'd be wondering why you had to keep replacing the bubble...

But unless the truth steps out into the glare you won't see it but it will be able to see you from the extremely dark shadows caused by such an intense light source.

I use my eyes to look at the sky. I don't have a suitable filter.

Yes it is, Teeside 40 miles away ruins the sky to the East. Carlisle at just over 20 miles is a spoldge to the NW. I'm lucky to live in one of the few places in England that has pretty dark skies, I want it to stay that way and preferably to get darker.

Of course the really philosophical question is would we know the truth if we saw it? That's now completely O/T so I shall not attempt to answer it. Is there a group uk.rec.philosophy.co.uk? I remain a mere humble engineer incapable of such extrapolated intellectual activity. My wife says I'm a git. I thought she was calling me a Great Intellectual Thinker. Sadly, I now know what she means.

John

My wife called me a miserable, scabby old git. I responded that the skin condition had cleared up now ;o))

Regards,

Kim