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Homemade solarium from mercury vapor street lamp

     In the garage I had lying a few discarded street lamps, most of them still functional. Also, I've had one unnecessary 150W halogen reflector. I used those to build a DIY home solarium. I took one of the 125W mercury lamps and carefully broke the outer glass envelope (bulb). The burner inside is similar to the lamp in the factory made home solariums. I gutted the burner along with its ignition resistor and put it into the halogen reflector. Protective glass (with UV filter) I removed. Reflector I screwed to the original ballast from the street lamp (ballast for 125W high pressure mercury vapor lamp). I plugged the ballast in series, connected the cable with cord and it was done. The device may also be useful to PCB exposure, curing varnishes and adhesives, disinfection, etc.

WARNING! The lamp emits intense ultraviolet light. This may cause serious damage to the skin and eyes and other health problems. Nowhere is explicitly written that burner from mercury lamp has exactly the same spectrum as a lamp in factory produced solarium. Mercury lamp contains mercury and toxic luminifor. Burner is under high pressure, it presents the risk of explosion. Outer glass bulb is exhausted, the breaking causes implosion and may lead to subsequent injury by flying pieces of glass. The device is powered by mains voltage. There is a risk of penetration of the voltage to case. Lamp (and the entire system) is very hot can cause burns, and the inappropriate location may cause a fire. I do not encourage anyone to build and operate this equipment. Everything you do at your own risk and the author does not take responsibility for any of your damage.


Schematic of the mercury vapor lamp connection.


Operating homemade solarium.


The reflector and Layrton 125W mercury ballast.


Lamp. Original resistor connected between the ignition and the opposite electrode is left here.


Hot electrodes after turned off.


Collection of TESLA mercury vapor lamps RVL-X and their "guts". 2x 125W lamps, bulb and the rest of 80W lamp, burners from lamps 250W and 2x 125W.



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