Because he heard I was good at fixing things, a guy with a silk-screening business asked me to look at one of his lights.
It's a backup unit so not crucial, but he said no one in town can fix it and it would cost a fortune to send it back to the factory. He was told that it's old and obsolete and even the factory would probably not be able to repair it anyway.
I told him I'd look at it, but there was a good chance it would be ready for the scrap heap when I got done.
It had very complex circuitry and as far as I could tell, it first applied a "lower" voltage to the bulb (perhaps 230 volts). Then after it warmed up, would boost the voltage to 600 or so.
I know nothing about gas discharge lights, I was wondering if anyone here has an info. As far as I could tell, they emit a lot of UV.
The guy told me that when he first started his business, he had a home made 500watt halogen light that worked fine...it just took 15 minutes to do a burn and he wanted to do things a bit faster.
After I gave up trying to repair it, I removed the bulb and sockets and retrofitted halogen fittings and a 230v 1500 watt bulb.
He has not tested it yet, but the thing is too bright to even look at so it should work.
But still I'm curious about the gas discharge lamp.
It's tubular and has no filament.