Ballast Failure

[tshea]

Customer has about 1000- 6 lamp T8 fixtures, with UNV ballasts. Fixtures are about 3 years old. Fixtures operate about 6000 hrs/yr.
Lately the ballasts have started to fail. Fixtures have 2 ballasts; both are 3 lamp ballasts, instant start, electronic. I'm not sure of ballast mfr. Fixture mfr claims transient voltage is problem. They (mfr) could sell a TVSS to customer.

I think it is a problem with the UNV ballasts. The line volts is 277, 240 and 120. Three different areas where lighting is installed.

There are minimal (miniscule) problems at another site where the ballasts are straight voltage (277v).

Any opinions? Anyone hear of mass failures with these ballasts?

 

[nakulak]

15 yrs ago poco offered rebate for customers to switch up to energy saving. client had us replace 2 bldgs with electronic energy saving ballasts. the bldgs are in older neighborhood where trees fall on lines during thunderstorms. every time it happened, they lost ballasts. I think the new ballasts are more resilient, but surge suppression helps.

 

[charlie tuna]

we had a contract to retrofit to electronic ballasts in a minimum security jail. the first building required about 200 ballasts. they were two light and four light fixtures and the circuit voltage was 120 volts. we used multi-tap ballasts. the jail was in an older part of the city and surrounded by industrial operations. after three days we found that 58 per cent of the fixtures were "out"!! we suspected maybe a bad batch of ballasts and replaced the bad units only to find an additional 15 more out??? the labor involved to replace them was high since it required an access problem to reach the fixtures.. our supplier was hunting for answers along with the ballast manufacturer?? we took a few of the defective ballasts to another building with a 480/277 volt service and tried them on the high voltage --they all worked fine??? we then suspected that they operated at the low voltage source of 120 volts but due to voltage spikes in that neighborhood the ballasts would shift up to the higher voltage and then not function back after the spike was gone??? that was out theory..... so we ordered straight 120 volt ballasts and never had a problem. supply house never came up with a reason but ate the ballasts and the labor to change them. i never used multi-voltage ballasts or ballasted fixtures again.......

 

[wireman71]

My suspicion.. Made in China, cheap parts. Lots of little components to fail or be assembled wrong in these ballasts.

 

[peter d]

The bottom line is that electronic ballasts, despite all their advantages as far as energy savings go, are not as robust as electromagnetic ballasts and do not have a very long life.

 

[HighWirey]

"so we ordered straight 120 volt ballasts and never had a problem. supply house never came up with a reason but ate the ballasts and the labor to change them".

charlie tuna,
"and the labor to change 'em"
Do you ever have a good supply house! Hang on to 'em!

"My suspicion.. Made in China, cheap parts. Lots of little components to fail or be assembled wrong in these ballasts"
Everything is 'hechoed' somewhere else now-a-daze. I don't think it was soley Chinas fault. Not in love with China here but . . .

I have retrofitted tens of thousands of mag ballasts to T-8 electronics. Sylvania and GEs, also hechoed in China. Dedicated voltage only, 120 or 277, never a problem.

Best Wishes Everyone in 2008

 

[charlie tuna]

"supply house eating the labor" -- i'm sure they passed it on to the manufacturer without too many "tears" -- so i figure they knew they had a problem with them. and i had to react quickly because it was a prison...... and the clincher was we had another 800 ballasts to purchase!!!
have to admit, this was a very good supply house -- when the owner gives you his home phone number for emergencies --- it means something and i guess it also has something to do with 25 years of purchases without ever owing them a dime past 30 days..........

 

[HighWirey]

I know the supply house did not take it on the chin, but it has always been difficult for me to get any labor out of 'em.

My good mentor always told me "Steve, we can only support so many vendors. Pick a few, and support them, it will pay dividends".
He was so correct (but check those invoices)!

I always had the managers home number, and a trusted countermans, for those outage weekends and nights.

Best Wishes Everyone in 2008

 

[robbietan]

thanks a lot guys. I am learning a lot from this forum. this one is great...