Electrical – How to drive a 5W low-pressure mercury UVC bulb

lightvoltage

How do I determine the voltage and necessary power supply for this bulb?

This bulb is a UVC low-pressure mercury vapor bulb used in my air purifier. It fits in a G23 Socket; normally I would expect a compact fluorescent bulb (G23) to have a ballast built in. This bulb is incandescent but it fits into a fluorescent socket. How do I drive this bulb, I'm assuming I need some sort of ballast?

Note: I believe this bulb is the old-style bulb which, according to some references, is considered incandescent but admit I do not know for sure. It does contain a filament.

enter image description here

An older design looks like an incandescent lamp but with the envelope
containing a few droplets of mercury. In this design, the incandescent
filament heats the mercury, producing a vapor which eventually allows
an arc to be struck, short circuiting the incandescent filament.

  • from Wikipedia

Best Answer

It looks like a fluorescent mercury bulb designed to output 254nm light with 5W. They are driven with AC current, but the actual control of that varies because temperature changes resistance. You can find many driver designs online, here is an example: https://www.electroschematics.com/fluorescent-light-driver/