Hello
I attended a customers property today to check on a fault with some latern courtyard lamps. There are 4 lamps and the centre 2 are not working. The customer had replaced the bulbs himself but there was no joy.
As a first port of call I swapped the 2 working bulbs from the outer fittings with the unworking bulbs to rule out bulb failure. Once swapped the bulbs are fine with the outer two fittings but still no light on the centre 2.
I used a lightmate on the centre fitting and voltage is present at 230v. The customer was not present in the property at the time so I could only access the yard however there is no sign of any ballast anywhere near the lamp. The lanterns are attached to a high wall (perhaps 20ft) with pillars which the lights sit on. The flex from the fitting simply disappers down inside the pillar. I have done work at his property before and there is a room containing all the consumer units, AV gear and switchgear for the property but I cannot for the life in me remember seeing any ballasts for sodium/halide lamps in there, just armoured cable for the courtyard lighting exiting the room underground.
I didn't have my multimeter with me so the only test I could run was that voltage was present and even to check the fitting was tight used a normal BC energy saver which lit in all fittings.
What should my next course of action be? I'm not going to lie I don't have a huge wealth of experience with arc lighting. The customer had reported that the RCBO supplying the courtyard lighting (C6 RCBO) had tripped a couple of times prior to him changing these 2 bulbs after which there has been no more tripping.
Does this sound like the ballast itself is at fault? I think I already know the answer to this but would you think the original fitter have been stupid enough to encase the ballast within the pillar or even under the driveway for some reason?
The bulbs in question are these http://www.venturelightingeurope.com/products/whitelux-plus-lamps/13742.html which appear to be a direct swap for HPS lamps using the original ballast
I attended a customers property today to check on a fault with some latern courtyard lamps. There are 4 lamps and the centre 2 are not working. The customer had replaced the bulbs himself but there was no joy.
As a first port of call I swapped the 2 working bulbs from the outer fittings with the unworking bulbs to rule out bulb failure. Once swapped the bulbs are fine with the outer two fittings but still no light on the centre 2.
I used a lightmate on the centre fitting and voltage is present at 230v. The customer was not present in the property at the time so I could only access the yard however there is no sign of any ballast anywhere near the lamp. The lanterns are attached to a high wall (perhaps 20ft) with pillars which the lights sit on. The flex from the fitting simply disappers down inside the pillar. I have done work at his property before and there is a room containing all the consumer units, AV gear and switchgear for the property but I cannot for the life in me remember seeing any ballasts for sodium/halide lamps in there, just armoured cable for the courtyard lighting exiting the room underground.
I didn't have my multimeter with me so the only test I could run was that voltage was present and even to check the fitting was tight used a normal BC energy saver which lit in all fittings.
What should my next course of action be? I'm not going to lie I don't have a huge wealth of experience with arc lighting. The customer had reported that the RCBO supplying the courtyard lighting (C6 RCBO) had tripped a couple of times prior to him changing these 2 bulbs after which there has been no more tripping.
Does this sound like the ballast itself is at fault? I think I already know the answer to this but would you think the original fitter have been stupid enough to encase the ballast within the pillar or even under the driveway for some reason?
The bulbs in question are these http://www.venturelightingeurope.com/products/whitelux-plus-lamps/13742.html which appear to be a direct swap for HPS lamps using the original ballast
