Removing 2 bulbs= burning up ballasts?

[LV1native]

I know a place where the upper management decided to remove two bulbs from all the 4 bulb light fixtures to save energy. I took a load amp reading and there is no reduce amps, but it seems like the ballast burn out faster and need to be replaced more often.

Is it true that they are saving energy?
Does it harm a 4 bulb electronic T-8 277 volt ballast?

Thanks in advance

LV1native

 

[hurk27]

Most 3 and 4 lamp electronic ballast can be wired to use one less lamp but not two, you have to follow the wiring diagram on the ballast to see which wires can be connected and which ones get capped, you can not just pull out a lamp because if you don't know which wires its connected to you will have problems, on a 4-lamp ballast I believe it is the brown set that gets capped, not sure on a 3-lamp, but anything else can and will shorten the life of the ballast, so read the ballast instructions and wiring diagram or you can end up replacing many ballast.

You would be better off to run another switched circuit up to the lights and install two, two lamp ballast so when you need the full light you still can have it.

There are ballast that have only 5 wires to the lamps, one yellow or blue, and 4 red, sometimes the red and blue colors are swapped, don't remember if these type of ballast can run one lamp short, but if they can I think they still require at least 3 lamps (4-lamp ballast) or 2 lamps (3-lamp ballast)

 

[LV1native]

Does it save energy?

Does it save energy?

There is no rewiring, they just removed two bulbs...

Is it true that they are saving energy?
Does it harm a 4 bulb electronic T-8 277 volt ballast?



LV1native[/QUOTE]

 

[hurk27]

There is no rewiring, they just removed two bulbs...

Is it true that they are saving energy?
Does it harm a 4 bulb electronic T-8 277 volt ballast?



LV1native

[/QUOTE]

I don't think you read my post very well, these ballast are not design to have two lamps removed, so yes it will damage them or cause premature failure, many are designed to run one less lamp (but some are not) but only if you use the correct wires from the ballast as doing other wise can also damage the ballast, if the lamps that are left in the fixture are on the wrong wires I would believe the operational voltage to the lamps will be higher and is why you didn't see a lower current level, take a look at the ballast label which will tell you if the ballast will even support one lamp being removed and which wires would be needed to be connected to allow this, it is different for each manufacture so you have to look at the ballast label, just removing the lamp is not a good idea as you will not know which wires go to which lamps until you look at the wiring diagram on the ballast.

I know of no electronic ballast that will allow more then one lamp less then it is design for, the wiring diagram will have the wiring for 4 or 3 lamps on it if it allows such.

 

[LV1native]

Removing two bulbs to save power

Removing two bulbs to save power

They are removing two bulbs from one side of the 4 bulb 32 watt 277v fixture. I do believe that the advance ballast are wired for right and left to be balance.

I called tech support for another brand and they said there is no problem to remove two bulbs in their opinion it will make the ballast run cooler. but this seems odd to me.

I was wondering if anyone else ran into this... to remove 2 bulbs is burning up ballasts.