Peculiarities of DRL 250 bulb replacement with LED
Gas discharge lamps are reaching their end of life. Developments in production technology ensures the dominance of LED technology in the market of public and industrial lighting, which is gradually squeezed out other sources of light. In addition, in 2014, Russia joined an international agreement that bans the production of products containing mercury. The days of DRL series lights are numbered.
Advantages and disadvantages of replacement
Despite the justified ban, DRL has been a success for a long time due to the following reasons
- low cost;
- Good efficiency (high luminous efficacy);
- long service life;
- a wide range of operating temperatures.
Video: LED modules to replace DRL lamps in street lamps
For decades there was no alternative to mercury devices for lighting non-residential premises, but now life forces their replacement with modern sources. Of course, these are semiconductor lighting fixtures. Replacing the DRL on LED lamps is overdue, in its favor say the advantages of LED lights:
- absolute environmental friendliness and low cost of disposal, minimal requirements for storage conditions of working and faulty devices;
- natural colors of light transmission;
- longer service life;
- higher efficiency;
- Low sensitivity to changes in supply voltage;
- no warm-up time is required - they shine at full brightness immediately after voltage supply;
- luminaire design is less conducive to dust deposition and reduction of luminous flux;
- Absence of ultraviolet component in the emission spectrum;
- Low power consumption allows the use of cables with a smaller cross section, which reduces the price of wiring products and requirements to supports for laying power lines;
- LED-lights do not require a ballast, which reduces the cost and increases the reliability of operation;
- slower loss of intensity of radiation during the service life;
- comparable unit cost per resource hour.
Based on the results of the comparison, it is clear that LED lamps beat mercury lamps even in those parameters where the latter had advantages. There are no disadvantages to replacing devices with modern ones, except for the need for some labor.
How to replace old lamps with LEDs
Directly replace the discharge lamp on the LED will not work - because of the peculiarities of DRL it is connected through the starting and regulating armature, the main element of which is a choke that limits the current. This choke in the AC circuit creates a significant resistance. Therefore, if you plug in the LED lamp directly instead of the discharge lamp, the brightness of the luminescence will be significantly reduced. There is also a capacitor in the circuit to improve surge compensation and a fuse to protect the mains supply from possible short circuits in the lamp.
This problem can be circumvented by upgrading the LED-light driver or developing a new one, which will not contain fundamental technical solutions. Just adaptation to the new working conditions. But from an economic point of view, this does not make sense, because it is much easier to redo the circuit.
DRL
To adapt the luminaire to the LED lamp, you should follow the steps:
- Remove the choke and short-circuit the contactsto which it was connected with a jumper. You can not remove and just short-circuit - it will still work. But it is better to dismantle it.
![Throttle of fluorescent lamps]()
The appearance of the choke - The capacitor does not affect operation., you can leave it. But it is better to remove it too, because current will flow through it. This will require an increase in the cross section of wires, unnoticeable in the case of a single lamp. But when there are a lot of lamps, the effect will be noticeable. And the extra element of unreliability, which can cause a short circuit, insulation breakdown, etc., is better to remove.
![A ballast capacitor is an unreliable link in the circuit.]()
Ballast capacitor - Fuse - fusible link - not important. The protection against abnormal conditions in modern networks is provided by circuit breakers. They perform their functions efficiently and do not need to be backed up by a fuse. In the event of an overload in the protected line, the circuit breaker can simply be reset (after eliminating the fault), and the fuse will have to be replaced. It is necessary to have a stock of fuse links for this purpose. There is no reason to continue using this element. It is also better to dismantle it, and the contacts are closed.
There are DRL lamps which do not require choke. They have a special spiral inside for ignition. This is the easiest option - the replacement of DRL 250 to LED lamp with an E40 cap in this case is made by simply unscrewing the old lighting fixture and installing a modern one in the same place. It is only necessary to check the presence of the capacitor and fuse - they can be installed "just in case".
It is also possible that various craftsmen ...to connect the DRLs without a choke...using capacitors, incandescent lamps, etc. as ballasts. Of course, all this must be disconnected and dismantled.
DnaT
In addition to lamps of DRL series, gas discharge lamps of DNAT, the action of which is based on the glow of sodium vapor with a sufficient degree of ionization of the gases inside the bulb. These lamps are not covered by the agreement to end the production of mercury devices, they have no phosphor layer, their environmental friendliness is much higher than that of mercury lamps. They also have better electrical properties than DRLs.
| Type of lamp | Rated power, W | Average lifetime, hours | Initial luminous flux, lm | Decrease of luminous flux after a year |
| DRL-250 | 250 | 12 000 | 13 200 | 40% |
| DNAT-250 | 250 | 15 000 | 26 000 | 20% |
Many experts question the need to replace sodium lamps with LEDs because the DNAT lamp:
- is cheaper than LEDs;
- has comparable energy efficiency with LEDs;
- is made according to proven technology, which leads to a high quality of manufacturing and operating life, approximately equal to the actual (not claimed!) service life of LED-lamps from little-known manufacturers.
Connecting a DNAT to a 220 V mains supply requires a special device - pulse ignition device(PSI), because high-voltage pulses are required for ignition, and a choke. If the decision to replace the sodium lamps with LEDs is still made, it will be necessary to remove the ignition unit. The wiring diagram can be found directly on the housing. When replacing with LEDs all superfluous elements must be removed.
Wiring diagram
In the end LED wiring diagram of a lamp instead of a mercury lamp comes down to a very simple option. You just have to remove everything unnecessary.
No control gear. Everything you need to work is inside the lamp or luminaire. And this is one of the many reasons why LED lighting has flooded the world market.
