My granddad wants a 70W HPS lamp fitted under a big tree in his garden and so I have gone ahead and order the required parts.
The key parts being a TimeGuard NTT01 24hr immersion timer, a Photocell, and of course the 70W HPS light fixture. Wired like so: Fused Spur > Timer > Photocell > HPS...
So today I did a little experiment and thought I would see what would happen if one powered up a 70W HPS bulb with an internal ignitor directly on the 230v mains without using a ballast.
Sadly not much happened other than a brief flash for a fraction of a second before the MCB for the circuit...