What is electromagnetic ballast?
Electromagnetic Ballast (Magnetic Ballast) LIGHTING: A ballast used with discharge lamps that consists primarily of transformer-like copper windings on a steel or iron core.
What is electromagnetic and electronic ballast?
A magnetic ballast uses coiled wire and creates magnetic fields to transform voltage. An electronic ballast uses solid state components to transform voltage. It also changes the frequency of the power from 60 HZ to 20,000 HZ or higher depending on the ballast.
Is magnetic or electronic ballast better?
In addition to not flickering and being quieter than magnetic ballasts, electronic ballasts are preferred because it has many other advantages. They are smaller in size and weigh less. Also, if you want to replace your magnetic ballast with an electronic ballast, this is cheap and relatively easy to do.
What is a ballast used for?
ballast – A device required by electric-discharge light sources such as fluorescent or HID lamps to regulate voltage and current supplied to the lamp during start and throughout operation.
How do I know if my electronic ballast is working?
To measure it, set your digital multimeter to around a thousand ohms resistance setting. Connect the black leads to the white ground wire on your ballast. Afterward, test every other wire with the red lead. When you do this test, a good ballast will return an “open-loop” or max resistance.
What are the disadvantages of magnetic ballast?
Some disadvantages of the inductive ballast are: they are less efficient than capacitive ballasts, they cost more, they weigh more, and they take up more space. Magnetic ballasts are typically used in reactors using medium pressure (MP) lamps.
How do you know if you have a magnetic ballast?
Stand under the light or a place close to the light and point your cell phone camera at the light.
- If you can see some strong dark strips flickering in your camera, it must be a magnetic ballast based light.
- Otherwise it should be an electronic ballast based light.
Why do ballast go bad?
Causes of Ballast Failure Premature ballast failure is often caused by the surrounding environment. When it’s too hot or too cold, the ballast can burn or fail to start your lamps at all. Heat combined with prolonged condensation inside an electronic ballast can cause corrosion.
How do you open a ballast?
Locate the wiring cover plate, usually in the center of the fixture. On either side of the cover, there will be tabs that catch in slots in the fixture. Squeeze the sides of the cover inward to slip the tabs out of the slots, and pull the cover down. This will expose the ballast and its wiring.