Dimmable Ballasts Issues

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bthouse

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St. Louis, MO
I'm having issues with some flourecent can lights. The cans have Advance Mark 10 dimming balasts. The cans are on a dedicated circuit and are controled by a plain toggle switch.( don't ask why dimmable ballasts aren't on dimmer switch.) They have been energized for about a week with no problems. We added one can light to the circuit. When we powered them back up we noticed all of the cans were a little dim. They slowly got dimmer until they were almost completly dark. Then they slowly came back to normal. The circuit is pulling approx. 6 amps and voltage looks normal. After about 3 hours the cans went dim and have not returned. Any suggestions?
 
These lights are not on a dimmer. The toggle switch is a keyed switch that nobody bothers to turn off at night. So, yes they have been on at 100% for 100 hours at least once. Maybe twice.
 
Is it possible that a neutral or switch leg got loosened? All did you bypass the switch? I would also check all connections in the panel and elsewhere. It sounds like the cans are not getting full voltage-- perhaps some arcing going on.
 
I was able to talk to a person from the Advance technical support line. (took me 3 tries to find a tech guy who actually listened to the problem enough to help.) The people from Advance said that these ballasts can behave this way when there is electrical noise on the circuit. Since we had no problems before the additional lights were added to the circuit, I suspect there is a loose connection somewhere between the existing cans and the new ones. Guess I'll find out tomarrow. Thanks for your replies.
 
bthouse said:
I was able to talk to a person from the Advance technical support line. (took me 3 tries to find a tech guy who actually listened to the problem enough to help.) The people from Advance said that these ballasts can behave this way when there is electrical noise on the circuit. Since we had no problems before the additional lights were added to the circuit, I suspect there is a loose connection somewhere between the existing cans and the new ones. Guess I'll find out tomarrow. Thanks for your replies.
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Let us know how it turns out. I bet there a wirenut loose somewhere in there.
 
bthouse said:
They are two wire.
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Then I agree it's likely a connectivity issue. Some three wire fluorescent ballasts need the constant hot and switch leg connected together for 100% output when using a SP switch for control.
 
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