Electronic Ballast

[AES1005]

Does anyone had any experience with electronic ballast failing within a few months after installation? My sister is a manager of a tennis club and the lighting installers are telling her she needs a new service panel???

I have installed several of the electronic ballast and not had any problems at all.I did read something about humidity as a possible factor. the service panel I see no correlation. any thoughts?

 

[AES1005]

Electrionic Ballast

Electrionic Ballast

I am having some new electronic ballast fail within a few months, the voltage is 120v @60hz. there may be some humidity present and possible somewhere down the lighting circuit I suspect a hot neutral could be reversed. trying to avoid opening every light until I can find the switch any idea's.

 

[LarryFine]

Are you sure you rewired the tombstones properly, and matched the tubes and ballasts?

Did you pair new tubes with new ballasts, and give them, or recommend, a good burn-in period?

Do they get switched on and off a lot? Could they be overheating, maybe from a hot ceiling location?

 

[AES1005]

I will find out, it could be the heat I know they are in a high ceiling. and I will have someone get me the lamp and ballast numbers to see if they are matched.
thanks.

 

[charlietuna]

Some years ago we retrofitted a minimum security jail using dual voltage electronic ballasts (120/277 volt). The first building required 128 ballasts and the fixtures were connected to 120 volt circuits. The installation was labor intensive due to access to each cell. Within two days after the first building was completed 28 fixtures were out ??? We went by our supplier and picked up replacement ballasts which happened to be straight 120 volt rated, and replaced the failed units. The failed ballasts were returned to the supplier. After a week more about twelve fixtures were out. At that point we needed to determine our problem because the costs of accessing many areas was getting too expensive. We did some testing on a damaged ballast. We found it would function on 277 volts but not on 120 volts. We came to the conclusion that our installation was subjected to some voltage surges which caused the ballast to shift to the higher voltage rating and then would not operate on 120 volts. All the 120 volt repacement ballasts functioned without any problem. We then replaced all the existing dual voltage ballasts with straight 120 volt electronic ballasts -- which solved the problem. We were told by the manufacturer's engineering department that the ballasts will not operate at the lower voltage once operated on the higher voltage??? We never use dual voltage ballasts !!

 

[kwired]

Some years ago we retrofitted a minimum security jail using dual voltage electronic ballasts (120/277 volt). The first building required 128 ballasts and the fixtures were connected to 120 volt circuits. The installation was labor intensive due to access to each cell. Within two days after the first building was completed 28 fixtures were out ??? We went by our supplier and picked up replacement ballasts which happened to be straight 120 volt rated, and replaced the failed units. The failed ballasts were returned to the supplier. After a week more about twelve fixtures were out. At that point we needed to determine our problem because the costs of accessing many areas was getting too expensive. We did some testing on a damaged ballast. We found it would function on 277 volts but not on 120 volts. We came to the conclusion that our installation was subjected to some voltage surges which caused the ballast to shift to the higher voltage rating and then would not operate on 120 volts. All the 120 volt repacement ballasts functioned without any problem. We then replaced all the existing dual voltage ballasts with straight 120 volt electronic ballasts -- which solved the problem. We were told by the manufacturer's engineering department that the ballasts will not operate at the lower voltage once operated on the higher voltage??? We never use dual voltage ballasts !!

Sure would be nice for them to design them to not do this or at least make you select the voltage either with a switch or with separate leads.

Any idea how far above 120 volts and for how long you have to be before it will not work at 120 anymore?

 

[hurk27]

We were told by the manufacturer's engineering department that the ballasts will not operate at the lower voltage once operated on the higher voltage???

Have never heard of this, we use both dual rated 120/277 (120v or 277v) and or continuously rate 120-277 (120v thru 277v) which will operate on anything in between, even 240v, 208v.
I have hooked up many Motorolas 120/277v ballast on 277 and then benched tested them at 120 afterwards without having this problem.:-?

 

[AES1005]

Thanks this is very good information. I think you are right about the dual voltages. I agree that wouldn't it be great for the manufacturer to install a switch to select which voltage you want.

 

[charlietuna]

As i said--"this was years ago" when they first came out with dual voltage ballasts. We stayed away from using them for that reason. The ballast manufacturer payed our time to correct the situation plus provided the single voltage ballasts -- so i'm figuring they knew they had a problem. Some of the removed ballasts were mistakenly installed on a 277 volt installation and we never had a problem with them as long as they were operating on the higher voltage. Also the prison was located in an area with industrial manufacturing which power bumps were a continuous problem.