Residential Grade Ballast

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A/A Fuel GTX

A/A Fuel GTX

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WI & AZ
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Electrician
The other day I installed a T8 wraparound on a residential 120v circuit with a 120/277 ballast in it. It caused major radio interference so I called Metalux and spoke with their tech support people. They proceeded to tell me that I needed a residential grade ballast. I never heard of a residential grade ballast and I thought the 120/277 was kind of a universal ballast that could be used anywhere. Needless to say, I replaced the dual voltage ballast with a straight 120v ballast and the interference disappeared. Has anyone else had similar problems with electronic ballasts?
 
Not until recently.

I just installed six four lamp fixtures with electronic ballasts in my garage and now my radio reception is terrible.
 
I think they are straight 120, they where left overs from a job a while back.

If I bought them for myself I would return them. :mad:
 
I believe we are talking about harmonic distortion here and I believe that the new t-8 ballasts are at 20% THD yet when they first came out they were around 37% so maybe if the ballast you got are of the first production runs you might have some with unacceptable THD which I believe would cause the interference..I am no expert in the THD area but I am sure there a a few here...
 
Sounds to me like "residential" is a term they are using for the old magnetic ballasts. If so, the downside is that they are less efficient than electronic ballasts, and they produce more heat.

Fixtures with electronic ballasts can also be ordered with a capacitor on the input to the ballast to filter out some of the ugly stuff they create on the input wiring. You can even get one capacitor per fixture, or one per ballast.

To go one step farther, you can also spec a military grade RF filter on the ballast input.

Finally, for the most demanding applications, you can even get an electrostatic shield built into the fixture lens. This may be necessary because even with the filters, electronic ballasts apply lots of RF to the lamps themselves. (Shielded lens are probably most common in hospital operating rooms.)
 
Residential ballast, neat excuse... I wonder if they provide smoke with the mirrors. Rather than say 'sorry bunk product with unintentional consiquences....'

Now if I can only get my cell phone to stop making that wierd noise every time I get near a radio.... :wink:
 
e57 said:
Residential ballast, neat excuse... I wonder if they provide smoke with the mirrors. Rather than say 'sorry bunk product with unintentional consiquences....'

Now if I can only get my cell phone to stop making that wierd noise every time I get near a radio.... :wink:
Click to expand...


"Residenial grade" is a better marketing term then "lowest quallity avalible".
And if your cell phone isn't makeing noise on the radio how will you know that your getting a call while you are blasting AC/DC .
 
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