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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 6:30 pm 
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That isn't really normal. Lower wattage ballasts do tend to be more lossy but it shouldn't get that hot, that quickly. I would try another 18/20W fluorescent ballast, try and get a European made one. Have a search on line, and old fluorescent fittings can always be cannibalised.


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:42 pm 
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There are some SOX lights on a road in Scunthorpe  (Lakeside Parkway to be precise) that are due to be replaced during the coming weeks with LED lighting but whilst these SOX ones are still running for now, I've noticed something weird about some but not all of them.

Some of them are exhibiting a weird colour issue where instead of the yellow colour after full warm up, there is a dull orange colour instead, or a half the lamp is the dull orange and half is the pinkish red from the warm up phase.

Someone told me this could be a possible capacitor issue, but I think it could be a sign of end of life, hence the replacement in the coming weeks.

Any thoughts on this?


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:22 pm 
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It's usually caused by lower quality lamps - Philips lamps for instance look much redder than cheaper brands. Using less neon gas is cheaper but lengthens start up time. More neon, more red. Lamps that are near end of life may have exhausted their neon (it tends to leak away through the glass electrode pinch seals), which can cause one side of the arc tube not to heat up sufficiently.


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:27 pm 
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Phosco152 wrote:
It's usually caused by lower quality lamps - Philips lamps for instance look much redder than cheaper brands. Using less neon gas is cheaper but lengthens start up time. More neon, more red. Lamps that are near end of life may have exhausted their neon (it tends to leak away through the glass electrode pinch seals), which can cause one side of the arc tube not to heat up sufficiently.

All those lamps I mentioned last month have since been replaced.


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Wed Feb 21, 2018 9:37 pm 
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I don't think it has been mentioned here yet, but Philips will be phasing out SOX lamp production. They are planning on taking the last orders for lamps in July 2019, so that come 2020 the production line will be shut down for good.

That will be curtains for SOX.


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:49 am 
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Re: Phase out of SOX lamps production.

Further to Sotonsteve's post regarding the above, below is a scan of the official Philips release, with some insights into why the decision has been made.

Whilst the news bears some similarities with the ending of linear Sodium lamps in the late 80s, this is possibly the first occasion where an established lamp technology is to be abandoned completely, rather than continuing in a more efficient format.

Even the incandescent filament lamp is still alive and well, despite sections of the family being given the environmental equivalent of an ASBO!

In the case of SOX, the technology to squeeze even more lumens / Watt had reached its logical conclusion (commensurate with the greater enthusiasm for polychromatic light sources).  On top of that, there is the physical size and fragility of these lamps, especially once they become part of the waste stream. A 180W lamp contains a lot of glass!

In the end, it was the challenging of the well established "law" surrounding how the monochromatic light is perceived by the human eye, that was to be its undoing. Could high pressure sodium soon be following the same pathway?

In some respects, whilst production will indeed end in 2020, it is quite likely that a few LAs that are still mulling over whether to commit to alternatives such as LED, may well seek to stock up on SOX whilst they still can and at reasonable cost. Others may decide that to continue with it any longer is a false economy and will see it as delaying the inevitable, especially as replacement control gear may well follow suit. As this news will have been in the pipeline for a long time, I can't imagine any municipal engineer would have been caught by surprise.

Will there be a flood of orders before the final deadline?

Will its effect be similar to the mass panic buying and hoarding of 100W GLS before the EC legislation banning such lamps took effect?

Who knows!

Despite the ending of production, I'm sure that Ebay will remain a popular outlet for SOX lamps for a good while yet - although does anyone reading this, need any more? The main downsize to SOX is alternative uses. It has been used in photographic safelights and even as an architectural tool.

SON on the other hand, is more versatile away from the borough's streets (as has been discovered by illicit hydroponic farmers secreted within the attic of a 1930s semi).

Despite the more limited uses available to it, I wonder if SOX lamps will equally reach bargain basement prices in due course?

And finally, having witnessed 35W SOX production at Osram's factory in Shaw back in the late 80s, I do wonder what will happen to the redundant Philips lamp plant. Will it be scrapped, stuffed and mounted as a museum exhibit or exported to the Far East?


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:31 am 
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There will come a time one day where LEDs will have been surpassed by something better and Philips and other manufactures posting a similar announcements about phasing out the production of LEDs.


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 Post subject: Re: SOX lamps
PostPosted: Mon Sep 19, 2022 5:37 pm 
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It appears there is a company TruHalo in Yorkshire that is importing and selling a selection of SOX and SOX-E lamps. It is suspected on the Lighting Gallery forums that these may actually be Chinese made lamps just branded as TruHalo.


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