How to make a choke for a DRL 250 lamp
Since DRL 250 high-pressure lamps have a fairly long service life and high efficiency compared to incandescent lamps, they are successfully used to illuminate summer cottages, the courtyard of a private house, and sometimes even indoor garages.
They have proven their reliability, quality of lighting over the years, and all this for a small amount of money. Purchasing a DRL 250 lamp will not be difficult. It is available for sale in both specialized stores and markets.
The problem may be the inductor, which is included in the lamp power circuit. Since it consists of copper wire, its cost, even used, is quite high. Therefore, this article will describe how to make a choke for this lamp from other commonly found materials. For example, from three chokes of once common fluorescent lamps. Such chokes were used in lamps for LD 40 lamps, respectively, their choke was 40 watts. Also lamps for LD 80 lamps in which the chokes are designed for 80 watts. To replace the inductor for a 250-watt DRL lamp, you will need two 80-watt inductors and one 40-watt inductor. Schemes of their connection can be seen in the figure.
Here you can see that all the chokes are connected in parallel, that is, the chokes connected in parallel form one common ballast.
One wire coming from the 220 socket connects to one end of the chokes, and the other wire in the 220 socket goes directly to the lamp. The wire from the output of the chokes goes to the second contact of the lamp. An option for installing chokes on the lamp body can be seen in the photographs.
Here you can also see how the wires are connected. It is very important to ensure that the contacts on the inductor terminals have a good connection, otherwise they will spark and heat up. In the photo you can see how such a choke works and starts the DRL 250 lamp.
This design was made and tested, showing good results. In addition to installing chokes on lamps, you can make a separate box in which they will be located, and lead the wires from it to the lamp. This assembly option will cost much less than purchasing a special throttle. I would like to remind you that according to the rules for installing DRL lamps, they must be at a height of at least three meters. Since it is believed that they emit quite a lot of ultraviolet radiation, and this is undesirable for human skin.
That's all. Try it and you will succeed.