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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #1336



>Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 08:14:03 -0400 (EDT)
>From: ac554 at freenet_carleton.ca (David Whittaker)
>Subject: Vaporized wiring
>
>Greetings,
>
>couple of possibilities, I opened up the octagonal box
>containing the electrical connections between mogul base
>and cord. After three years the heat had reduced the murets
>(connectors) to powder, and had evaporated the insulation

Every lamp base and mount have certain temperature rating. For example, as
far as I remeber from my experience with MH, base temperature must not
exceed 350C and outer jacket temperature must be lower than 600C 9depending
on lamp wattage). 

In your case, probably, the cheapest connector/base/etc were used. Do you
have cooling? Was the size of pendant enought to provide enough air
circulation?

next reason would be moisture inside the box. You created the perfect
conditions for rapid oxidzing - high temperature and moisture. What kind of
connectors do you have? COpper oxidizes very quickly when temperature is
high and "rust" peels off easily.

>Is there any lamp cord or any type of muret which can handle
>fairly high temperatures? 

High temperature UL (or CSA, because you're in canada) approved cord. 



Is there a better solution for wiring
>and mounting the mogul base to the parabolic pendant? 

It depends. But you need to provide air-moving that help cooling and pool
moisture out.


>
>The pendants were obtained from All-Ways Lighting of Vancouver.
>Anyone who has purchased similar recycled, inexpensive, MH
                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

These are keywords. You've got what you've paid for. Were this fixture
rated for using in humid environment?

>fixtures ought to check out the wiring. I was lucky.



>
>- --
>Dave Whittaker
>Gloucester, Ontario
>Canada
>ac554 at FreeNet_Carleton.ca
>


Michael, who design weird optics around weird lamps