Metal Halide bulb question!

[dakotamoon]

I acquired a bunch of 175 watt metal halide bulbs cheap - I have sockets for the E39 bulbs but no ballast! There are so many ballasts it's mind numbing!

The bulbs: Fusion Lamps 4200K cool white, FMH175/U/ED28 is what the bulbs say.

There are pulse start ballsts, there are digital electronic ballasts - Before I go to the expense of buying a ballast - can anyone tell me exactly what I am looking for?

Thanks guys and gals.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I found this document:

https://fusionlamps.ca/media/attachment/file/sdu/FMH175_U_STD_ED28.pdf

...that states that those are probe-start metal halide bulbs.

I also found this document (webpage format) that has information about the differences between probe-start and pulse-start metal halides, which might help confirm identification:

https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightinganswers/mwmhl/differenceprobepulse.asp

That was the standard type of MH bulb, years ago. Pulse-start was the "new and improved" technology. Whatever ballasts you choose will need to be capable of initially starting your probe-start bulbs.

By the way, are these used bulbs? Usually, when someone ends up with "a bunch" of HID bulbs, it is because someone - a municipality, business, et cetera - has recently replaced all of their lighting with newer technology. In such cases, it tends to mean that the person now in possession of the bulbs... has a pile of bulbs that vary in age from "We just replaced the newest this past Spring (or was it the Spring before last ) " to "It still works, more or less." If that's the case here, be aware that the output of a HID bulb decreases over time - and that a bulb's output may have increased as much as 30% before its output actually appears dimmer to the human eyeball. But you are still paying for the same amount of electricity each month, lol. For this reason, I would consider a used bulb only as an emergency/backup bulb.

 

[dakotamoon]

Thanks so much TS, great information. The bulbs are in boxes they look brand new. There are no heat marks of any kind.