Discharge Lighting Secret Invention Energy Saving
Here is the first ever Prototype unit with a PIR sensor that was built 5 years ago, and still operational. Philips said it was impossible to do as an discharge arc lamp can not be switched on and off or dimmed down and be stable. They say it has to run at full power all the time, they rushed to see it, said it is incredible and said is worth millions in what it saves. They could not beleive it ! You can see the current being displayed on the left, the voltage remains at 240v at all times, the light output is stable at power save and at full power, and instantly switches between the two. It is a standard 400w sodium or halide fitting that has been modified to have a PIR sensor to reduce the power to less than half when there is no activity near it, but still providing strong back ground light and in an instant back to blinding full power when there is, the sensor is a standard long range PIR with sdjustable sensitivity and on time. It uses a single lamp ! The idea was to install these in multi storey car parks where typicly it could automaticly reduce power to fittings that thave no activity near them, saving more than 50% electricity per year. Think of all those lights burning at full power on the top floors at night when there they are emtpy, well dim them down ! Oh I forgot… it’s impossible apparently ! Trust me it works very well, and gives a lot of light even at half power for indefinate periods of time. Of couse it has a daylight sensor built in as well, to shut it …
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Security & street lights would be another application. For example, on a quiet street, a PIR sensor on each lamp post would put the next few lamps ahead on full brightness as a vehicle goes past.
Even if the bulb makers are not interested, I’m very surprised that the outdoor light fixture makers have not had a go at this, as this would certainly be a unique selling point. For these makers that don’t manufacture bulbs, they wouldn’t care whether or not it means less or more bulbs are sold.
so the lads at the company didnt even offer you a job? that sux. typical big corp, so ever slow to adopt new stuff. no wonder we are living in the electrical dark ages. grrrr
The usual suppression strategy at its best from Philips and Thorn.
The priciple of having a PIR sensor built in is supposably impossible on a discharge lamp.
Clearly this shows that the PIR can be incoroprated in the circuit to dramatically reducing power when the lamp is not required.
As the lamp is pre heated on energy save mode, it can instanly increase to full power without warm up, as it has already warmed up.
It’s about seemless switching without interupting the arc.
Nice light, but I don’t get it sorry. HID lamps can indeed be dimmed (but not fully) and switched on and off instantly (with an instant restrike ignitor), but the frequent switching on and off drastically decrease their life, and still every HID lamp needs a few minutes to warm up when it cooled off after the last switch-off.