Experiment No.
3 Sodium Vapour and Metal Halide lamps
Aim: To prepare the connection of sodium Vapour and Metal Halide lamps and measure their
efficacies.
Objective:
To study the working and connections of High Pressure Sodium Vapour (HPSV) Lamp and and Metal
Halide Lamp and to measure their efficacies.
Theory:
Sodium-vapour lamp
Electric discharge lamp using ionized sodium, used for street lighting and other illumination. A low-
pressure sodium-vapor (LPS) lamp contains an inner discharge tube made of borosilicate glass that is
fitted with metal electrodes and filled with neon and argon gas and a little metallic sodium. Sodium
vapor lamps are mainly used for street lighting. They have low luminosity and hence require glass tubes
of large lengths, which make them quiet bulky. The lamp consists of a U shaped inner glass tube filled
with neon gas at high pressure. The tube also contains a small quantity of sodium and argon gas. Two
oxide coated tungsten electrodes are sealed into the tube at the ends. This tube is enclosed in an outer
double walled vacuum enclosure to maintain the required temperature. When current passes between
the electrodes, it ionizes the neon and argon, giving a red glow until the hot gas vaporizes the sodium.
The vaporized sodium ionizes and shines a nearly monochrome yellow. LPS lamps have been used
widely for street lighting since the 1930s because of their efficiency (measured in lumens per watt) and
the ability of their yellow light to penetrate fog. High-pressure sodium-vapor (HPS) lamps have an inner
discharge tube made of translucent alumina that can withstand the corrosive effects of a mixture of
mercury and sodium under greater pressure and higher temperature. HPS lamps give a whiter light and
are used for extra-bright lighting in places such as road intersections, tunnels, sports stadiums, and
other places where it is desirable to see a full spectrum of reflected colours.
A voltage of the order of 380- 450 volts (depending on the wattage) is necessary to start the discharge,
which is obtained from a high reactance transformer or an autotransformer or ballast. Initially the
sodium vapor lamp operates as a low-pressure neon lamp emitting pink color. As the lamp gets heated
and reaches a temperature of 200° C the sodium deposited on the sides of the tube walls vaporizes and
radiates yellow light. It has a maximum efficiency at 220° C. The igniter provides periodic pulses of 2500
to 4000 volts with duration of at least one microsecond. A capacitor C is used to improve the power
factor.
Metal Halide lamps
This type of lamp is also known as an 'MH' lamp. It is an HID lamp (High Intensity Discharge), which
means it provides most of its light from the electric arc within a small discharge tube. It is becoming
increasingly popular due to its good quality white light and good efficiency. The most prominent use of
the MH lamp is in stadiums and sports fields. It is also used widely for parking lots and street lighting in
urban areas. Its competitors include the HPS lamp, mercury vapor lamp, LPS lamp, halogen lamps, and
LEDs. MH lamps have advantages over the rest which make it more useful for certain applications. Like
fluorescent and high pressure sodium lamps, metal halide lamps produce light by passing an electric arc
through a mixture of gases and require ballasts to provide proper starting and operating voltages. In a
metal halide lamp, a compact arc tube contains a high-pressure mixture of argon, mercury, and a variety
of metal halides. The argon gas, which is easily ionized, facilitates striking the arc when voltage is applied
across the electrodes. The heat generated by the arc then vaporizes the mercury and metal halides.
These metal vapors produce light as the
pressure and temperature within the arc tube rises, with the light's color properties depending on the
specific mix of metal halides.
Advantages:
*More pure white light than the popular HPS lamps, close to daylight frequencies, which allows it to be
used for growing plants
*More energy efficient than mercury vapor and halogen lamps, great lumen output
*Good for indoor (high ceiling areas - "high bay" applications) and outdoor use due to good light quality
Disadvantages:
*Expensive per-bulb cost: expensive to manufacture - many parts to assemble and materials are not
cheap
*Light pollution: the light is so bright that it produces much more light pollution than HPS or LPS street
lamps, the whites from an MH lamp are closer to daylight in frequency.
Circuit Diagram:
Formulae:
I =E D2
Ftotal=4 πIavarage
Ftotal
n=
P
Results:
Table 1: Sodium Vapour Lamp
Time(s) Voltage(v) Current(A) Power(W)
50s 238.5 1.74 155.6
2.30m/138s 238.9 1.672 162.6
5.30m/318s 238.5 1.523 186.3
8.6m/516s 238.1 1.494 190.5
Distance D E(Lm/m^2) I=ED^2(Lm/Str Iavarage(Lm/Str) Ftotal Eficacy(Lm/W)
(m) )
D1: 0.1 570 570 785 9864.6 51.78
D2: 0.2 250 1000
Table 2: Metal Halide Lamp
Time(s) Voltage(v) Current(A) Power(W)
60s 238.9 1.33 232.1
2m/120s 238.3 1.153 259.6
3m/180s 238.3 1.143 260.5
Distance D E(Lm/m^2) I=ED^2(Lm/Str Iavarage(Lm/Str) Ftotal Eficacy(Lm/W)
(m) )
D1: 0.1 460 460 650 8168.1 31.35
D2: 0.2 210 840
Discussions:
To verify the performance of the adopted circuit, prototype device has been built and tested. We are
investigated output voltage, intensity light, distance of photovoltaic with lamp, load power and compare
specification of conventional lamp with new lamp (has installed photovoltaic). The voltage has been
constant when distance photovoltaic increasing. The distance 0.1m has been constant voltage and
current 15.6V and 0.7A, after more than 5cm voltage decrease. The optimum point of distance
photovoltaic is 10cm at 12.4V, 0.58A because distance between lamp to photovoltaic is maximum 10cm.
Conclusion:
Application of artificial lighting as
supplemental and sole light sources
for growing
plants has been in practice for almost a
century. Advancements in lighting
technology
have allowed the implementation of
electrical lamps at large scales for
controlled
environment agriculture and in vitro
transplant production. Conventionally,
filament-
and gas-based electrical lamps, viz.
ILs, FLs and the different HIDLs,
have been
employed in greenhouses and
controlled environment plant
production units.
High-power requirement and
relatively short life span of these
lamps made such crop
production systems highly
uneconomical. Furthermore, the lack
of intelligent control
and risks in handling and disposal
reduced the usefulness of ILs and
GDLs for
large-scale interior agriculture. The
development of power-efficient high-
brightness
LEDs has been a major breakthrough
in lighting technology that has
dramatically
changed the scenario of plant lighting
for both commercial and research
endeavors.
LEDs are semiconductor light sources
that have the ability to deliver photons
more precisely than all other
contemporary electrical lamps. LEDs
have been rec-
ognized as a new artificial lighting
source to promote photosynthesis, to
regulate
photomorphogenesis, and to enhance
nutritional quality of leafy vegetables
due to its
several aforesaid advantages.
Advancements in the LED technology
over time
including packaging, current drop,
phosphor coatings, intelligent control
of light
distribution, intensity and spectral
quality along with the reduction in
prices will
make LED-based illumination system
a smart choice for novel open as well
as closed
plant production systems
Application of artificial lighting as supplemental and sole light sources for growing plants has been in
practice for almost a century. Advancements in lighting technology have allowed the implementation of
electrical lamps at large scales for controlled environment agriculture and in vitro transplant production.
Conventionally, filament-and gas-based electrical lamps, viz. ILs, FLs and the different HIDLs, have been
employed in greenhouses and controlled environment plant production units. High-power requirement
and relatively short life span of these lamps made such crop production systems highly uneconomical.
Furthermore, the lack of intelligent control and risks in handling and disposal reduced the usefulness of
ILs and GDLs for large-scale interior agriculture. The development of power-efficient high-brightness
LEDs has been a major breakthrough in lighting technology that has dramatically changed the scenario
of plant lighting for both commercial and research end favors. Metal halide discharges are very efficient
lamps. In spite of their advantages, there are still several issues limiting a wider applicability. One of the
discharge-related problems is color separation, which is caused by a complex interaction of diffusion and
convection transport of the light-emitting metal species in the discharge. It is currently beyond our
capabilities to understand and model a general metal halide lamp with a complex shape and chemistry.
Therefore, a simple reference lamp has been defined as useful for experiments and modeling. To
eliminate convection, experiments under microgravity have been performed during parabolic flights and
in the ISS. Due to stringent weight, volume, and safety regulations, dedicated experimental designs
needed to be developed, which proved to work successfully in the space station. The results support the
qualitative theory of the lamp, but more importantly supply ample data for future model validation.
