I located a legal 'White Paper' that claims 1% of these bulbs fail violently and result in fires. I need a study or testing results for a court action.
I located a legal 'White Paper' that claims 1% of these bulbs fail violently and result in fires. I need a study or testing results for a court action.
Contact NIST or ATF, one or combined did some testing.
I forgot why they failed.
sorry not NFPA related comment
You might also contact IAAI, for testing
There is a lot of industry data on these bulbs, on source/
http://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/exploding-metal-halide-fixture-14480/
A guy I know in that industry (a supplier in Colorado) says it's more like 8% if you include failures both contained and not contained by the thicker parts of the MH bulb. In his experience the whole thing blows in (he guessed) 1 bulb in 2,000.
The problem is documented well enough to change the NEC:
NEC Sec XIII: (5) Metal Halide Lamp Containment. Luminaires that use a metal halide lamp other than a thick-glass parabolic reflector lamp (PAR) shall be provided with a containment barrier that encloses the lamp, or shall be provided with a physical means that only allows the use of a lamp that is Type O.
HID Metal Halide Bulbs that are not approved for the fixture, such as ANSI Type S bulbs being used in an unproteced fixture, are not allowed any longer by NEC (2005). They are being replaced by LED and some utiltites have energy credits. The bulb arc tube have internal temps in the neighborhood of 1500+ deg F and pressures approaching 70 PSI in some cases. When they burn out (normally) there is no risk, but if bulbs are left on and not cycled frequently, they can explode violently. I am in GA and I can tell you of claims in 25' carpet racks caused by these bulbs.
Contact NIST or ATF, one or combined did some testing.
I forgot why they failed.
sorry not NFPA related comment