A closer look into the Thomas Safelight (and LPS tech in general)
Added 2021-12-26 03:07:07 +0000 UTCHere's the second in our Connextrasvaganza!
Just an off-the-cuff further look at this thing. Annnd that's about it.
Comments
Hey Alec, have you looked at RS for replacement bulbs? I *think* this URL may be relevant for you: https://export.rsdelivers.com/browse/electrical-automation-cables/lighting/light-bulbs-lamps-tubes/sodium-lamps For sure they still make and sell these bulbs, they're just *soooo* industrial. Edit: Oh, I see Wikipedia says that they're being discontinued: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-vapor_lamp#Low-pressure_sodium All those at the RS link seem to be SON (high-pressure sodium), which are still being manufactured.
Tedd
2021-12-29 08:26:14 +0000 UTCi wish you had showed a time-lapse of the bulb warming up.
The 8-Bit Guy
2021-12-27 17:48:12 +0000 UTCGrowing up most of the time in Southern California, but spending part of the time in the Greater Chicago area, I remember feeling like Chicago was other-worldly at night. It took me a long time to understand this was due to sodium lights which were not common in L.A.
Daniel Welsh
2021-12-26 18:35:55 +0000 UTCWhen these were widely used in our area (Co. Donegal in Ireland), it was quite common to see faulty lights, usually either the lamp not lighting or constantly flickering stuck at the neon red colour. Here, they mostly rely on the public to report faulty lights. Each street light has a number stamped on the pole and a telephone # to report a fault. I've reported a few in the past and they were fixed a day or two later. There are very few LPS lights left now here, mostly replaced by LED.
Seán Byrne
2021-12-26 14:15:06 +0000 UTCMaybe you could look for European stores. I found this looking for sodium light (Natrium in my country): https://lumenet.hu/syl-shp-ts-grolux-400 Is this the same thing? The inside is different but based on the same material and looks to be the same shape.
Dukefazon
2021-12-26 11:26:52 +0000 UTCMy guess is the main way these age is the electrode wear, and maybe the thermal cycling stressing the glass or glass/metal joints where the electrodes go through...
Kilrah
2021-12-26 11:06:51 +0000 UTCI remember the yellow sodium lighting, I think also here in Europe, it's still around a lot. And the red starting. As a kid, I at least have seen many times the lights staying red, most probably because they were broken... I guess, at least here in Switzerland, they are replaced with LEDs nowadays. These lights that also dim and light up brighter when somebody comes closer.
MrHammond
2021-12-26 09:14:23 +0000 UTCAre you following me around?? I got an Aladdin lamp shortly before you released that video, and an LPS lamp a few months ago. I did some research on the actual current and voltage of the tubes and came to the conclusion that electronic fluorescent instant start ballasts would work well with these, and it seems they do, at least for my 55W one. This is largely speculation, but I'd guess the life is limited by the filament electrodes, which I suspect are coated tungsten filaments like in vacuum tubes. As they age, the voltage drop between the electrode and the sodium vapor increases, causing more energy to be wasted as heat, hence lower efficiency. If you got a fresher bulb, you could compare the power consumption, which if I'm right, might be lower (but at the cost of an even worse power factor).
John Hiesey
2021-12-26 05:44:06 +0000 UTC
