Electronic Ballast

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mjrose27

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A friend changed his ballast and is now getting noise on his radio. What is the cause and is there a remedy?
 

Dennis Alwon

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Location
Chapel Hill, NC
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Retired Electrical Contractor
A friend changed his ballast and is now getting noise on his radio. What is the cause and is there a remedy?

Some electronic ballast cause interference on solid state equipment. Try a different brand ballast. Some will tell you its a cheap ballast-- maybe so, but I have found this problem on name brand ballast and fixture. I think electronic ballasts still have some room for improvement.
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
100303-1218 EST

Try a low pass noise filter in the fixture. Corcom (now part of Tyco) is one source. These filters make a big difference on the conducted or radiated interference from fixtures with magnetic ballasts, and will probably help on electronic ballasts.

.
 

Dennis Alwon

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Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
100303-1218 EST

Try a low pass noise filter in the fixture. Corcom (now part of Tyco) is one source. These filters make a big difference on the conducted or radiated interference from fixtures with magnetic ballasts, and will probably help on electronic ballasts.

.

Gar will that filter work on a row of fixtures or do you need one per light?
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
100303-1510 EST

Dennis:

One filter per fixture. Additionally experiment would indicated if the results are better if you shorten the input leads from the filter to the ballast.

40 + years ago when I installed my Slimline fixtures I used a Cornell-Dubilier filter. This greatly reduced the EMI to AM radio.

CD is out of this business. In recent years I have used a Corcom 5VR1 (5 A 120/250 V 50-60 Hz) in our gaging equipment power supply. This is a multistage filter and might work well on a fluorescent fixture.

A filter such as this reduces the conducted noise to the supply wiring and thus also reduces radiation from the supply wiring as well as conducted noise back to devices plugged into the AC supply. There should be improvement on both battery powered radio receivers and AC powered units.

This filter does nothing for radiation from the antenna that is the conducting arc in the lamp bulb.

.
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
100303-1945 EST

Dennis:

I have just run an experiment with a Corcom 5VR1. Very quick and crude.

Location --- my basement shop.
Receiver --- Panasonic AM, shortwave, and FM. Tuned to about 600 kHz AM where there was no substantial broadcast signal. Battery operable at 12 V or 120 V AC. AM antenna is on back of receiver.
Noise source --- cheap Home Depot 4' with electronic ballast.
There is moderate noise on my AC supply, but I shutdown most noise sources in the house.

The receiver is on the floor about 5' from the wiring in the benches.

On battery power there is a small amount of residual non-hiss background noise.

With the 4' plugged into the bench the noise level increases from radiation from the bench wiring. Inserting the Corcom in the line to the light reduces the noise to the background level.

Next the receiver is AC powered from the bench. No significant change in background noise vs battery operation. Plug 4' light in without Corcom and the noise level is much higher than when receiver was battery powered. Then inserted the Corcom in line with the light and the receiver noise was little different than background.

The Corcom is not inexpensive.

.
 

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
I've heard the residential grade fixtures/ballasts are supposed to prevent the noise. The commercial grade ones don't. If it's a residential grade fixture that you have, I'd call the manufacturer, they may send you different ballasts to try for no charge.
 

dbuckley

Senior Member
Just to amplify - this is all to dowith FCC Part 15

Class A Digital Device. ?A digital device that is marketed for use in a commercial, industrial or business environment, exclusive of a device which is marketed for use by the general public or is intended to be used in the home.?

Class B Digital Device. ?A digital device that is marketed for use in a residential environment notwithstanding use in commercial, business and industrial environments. Examples of such devices included, but are not limited to, personal computers, calculators, and similar electronics devices that are marketed for use by the general public.
 
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