I'm trying to gather some information for a friend, who is building some HID lights for a fishtank.

The ballast instructions give these guidelines:
Use a pulse start socket rated at 4kv
Use high temperature wire rated at 1.2kv

the socket comes prewired already, what I need to know, is what wire to use between the socket, and the ballast, mounted some unknown distance away (say 10ft max)

The hard part is finding a cable with internal wires rated at 1.2kv ... most seem to be rated at 300v.

From what I can tell the bulb operates at 130 volts and a little over 1a of current, so not a lot of power there, but what is unknown is how much power is used to pulse start the bulb. the cable needs three conductors; hot, neutral and ground.

when I try googling for high voltage cables, I get tons of pages for transmission lines rated at tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of volts, but nothing much for something in the 1.2kv range.

any suggestions, is it even something to worry about? i mean, if the pulse start is very brief, will regular 300 volt rated vinyl (pvc) insulation withstand it?

 

I have some HV Cable.
If you want some, Email Me.

Depends also on What Length you need.
Its Fairly small diameter and rated at 30Kv.
Some .18 Inch Diameter.
Or I have a Lot of .22 Inch Diameter also.

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Consider putting the HV pulser/starter right at the lamp socket and provide power and control to the starter with low voltage wiring. You may find that starting is not reliable at distances like 10 ft. between the starter and the lamp, anyway, due to capacitive losses and HV lead inductance.

What does the lamp/socked/starter/ballast manufacturer say about distance?

Try bulk, non-resistive automobile ignition wire. No disadvantage whatsoever using a wire rated for much higher voltage than you are using (except cost).

Good luck

awright

 

THe ballast has no starter like the 'old fashioned' core and coil type ... this is a full enclosed and small solid state 'electronic' ballast.

I don't have that information, I will try to find out ... the pre-made lights sold using the same ballast come with 10 foot cords, so that is where I got the 10ft number from.

 

thanks for the offer. I will pass it along to my friend.

 

Not exactly 10 ft., but there is a HV wire inside all CRT TV sets. I think its rated at around 15kv or somethin

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I hope not! - most CRT colour TV's run at 25kv or above! - with the larger ones being higher than the smaller ones.

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The OP should google for some vendors...

"high voltage cable" produced thousands of hits with vendors. One relevant hit is this. Cost looks good.

http://www.surplussales.com/Wire-Cable/HVWire-1.html

 

Is your system designed for a remotely located starter/ballast like this? HIDs have somewhat complicated starting and running procedures, the added inductance and capacitance of a cable could interfere with its operation.

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