Custom Security Light

When I first moved into this house I installed a 100 watt High Pressure Sodium "dusk till dawn" light on a pole next to the driveway. It worked good for a few years, but then started to turn on and off randomly. I replaced the bulb, and that cured it for about a week...troubleshooting revealed the ballast was messed up. I got a great deal on a mercury vapor light with the same mounting pattern on ebay, so I just swapped them and put the sodium light in storage. I recently decided to put a dusk till dawn light on my shop, and thought why not reuse the old fixture that has been collecting dust? I ordered a M58 ballast (will run a 175 watt metal halide or mercury vapor lamp), a 175 watt metal halide bulb, and a mogul base socket online, all which came to about $65.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during the real "technical stuff", but the only tricky part was I had to tack weld the new ballast mounting bracket (not big enough to span mounting holes) to the old one that came with the fixture. I also had to enlarge the hole in the reflector to fit over the new base socket. I reused the old photocell and mounted it in the shop for a week long test. It fired right up, and at first it looked like a normal MV light...but as the bulb heats up it changes from a greenish light to a blinding white light. This is not something you would want to put up in an area with a lot of houses nearby...the complaints would probably flood in.

Dang Robb! Why you wasting money on that old school lighting drama! New school is replacing with all led. I just changed out some for a friend. He changed 250 watters into 28 watt LED floods. While the light doesn;t seem as bright during dusk, they certainly get the job done the rest of the night.

I guess I am old school, hell I even burn coal in my house!!

Rob R. wrote:I guess I am old school, hell I even burn coal in my house!!

WHAT!?!? Where do you get that stuff? Isn't it...."DANGEROUS"?

I've seen those lights in old warehouses, they take damn near forever to come on but when they do man are they bright.