How do you know if a ballast is burnt out?
Common symptoms of a bad ballast or driver include dimming lights, a humming noise, rapid flickering, or changes in color. When facing issues with any light fixture, you should check all of the components, including the light bulbs.
Check the Ballast with a Multimeter
Insert one probe into the wire connector while holding the white wires together. Touch the other probe to the ends of yellow, red, and blue wires coming from the ballast. Some might exclude the yellow. If the ballast doesn't cause the needle to move, you know it needs to be replaced.
Generally speaking, if you increase the maximum operating temperature by 10°C, you will lower the ballast's life in half. Additionally, if your ballast is not properly wired to the fluorescent lamps, which can also cause it to malfunction.
- Low output. If the lights remain dim for several minutes after you've turned them on, you could have an issue with your ballast, especially if you've just replaced your bulb.
- Flickering. ...
- Buzzing. ...
- Inconsistent lighting levels. ...
- Delayed start.
According to the Certified Ballast Manufacturers Association, the average magnetic ballast lasts about 75,000 hours, or 12 to 15 years with normal use. The optimum economic life of a fluorescent lighting system with magnetic ballasts is usually about 15 years.
Ballast failure is often caused by the surrounding environment—mainly heat and moisture. When it's too hot or too cold, a ballast can burn or fail to start your lamps.
A fluorescent light has to have a ballast in order to work, without it, the current would increase as it passed through, ruining the lamp all together. The good news is that a typical ballast will generally last about 20 years, so you won't have to worry about replacing them very often.
Almost all lighting fixtures can house LED bulbs. To confirm that LED bulbs can be housed in a fluorescent lighting fixture, look for LED bulbs that are “ballast compatible,” this means that they can work with the ballasts that are already installed in your current lighting fixture.
First, set the multimeter to the resistance setting. Then, touch one lead of the multimeter to each of the ballast's terminals. The resistance reading should be either 1 or O.L. If it is different, then the ballast is most likely defective and needs to be replaced.
Overheated fluorescent lights can cause fires! Overheating of the ballast could result in the following: Ignition of nearby combustible materials. Explosion of the ballast due to the generation of gases inside.
How many volts should a ballast put out?
The reading should be between 300 and 1000 volts depending on the ballast model. On Allanson's 696 and 4120, the readings should be taken between the blue/white and red as well as the blue/white and blue, because these are dual circuit ballasts. See the ballast label for specific Open Circuit Voltage rating.
25 Instant Start Ballast
Without filament pre-heating, this typically occurs between 400 to 500 volts, but the striking voltage for some instant-start fluorescent lamps is in the range of 700 to 800 volts.
Fluorescent lamps use a ballast which transforms line voltage to a voltage to start up and operate the lamp(s). Newer fluorescent ballasts are usually rated for both 120 volts and 277 volts. Some are rated for only 120 volts, others for only 277 volts (used in commercial environments).
Heat and moisture are enemies #1 and #2 to your ballast. Every ballast has an ambient operating temperature range and UL location rating. When it's too hot or too cold, the ballast can burn or fail to start your lamps at all.
For energy savings, reliability, and longevity – replace ballasts – not bulbs. In addition to energy efficiency issues, older ballasts simply do not offer the reflection geometry newer options do.
A giveaway that a ballast isn't working properly is a buzzing sound coming from the bulb. If you have more than one bulb in a fitting and all the bulbs are flickering or out then it's highly likely to be the ballast.
Unscrew both screws on the ballast, typically located on either side of it. Once you've removed it, you can simply throw the ballast away. Install new ballast. Insert the new ballast.
Electrical compatibility is a bit trickier, because T12 fixtures will almost always contain a T12 ballast, which is not compatible with T8 lamps. Direct-wire compatible T8 LED tube lights can be used in a T12 fixture, as long as the T12 ballast is either bypassed, or completely removed.
Eventually, the whole ballast bed will need replacing – ballast can last around 20 years (depending on traffic) while the other track components can be double that.
This device regulates the distribution of energy across your lighting fixture, working with a load to limit the amount of current in an electrical circuit. That means that when your ballast starts to go, your lights have nothing to regulate the current that travels through your bulb's tube.
Do ballasts last longer with LED bulbs?
Direct connect LEDs (those that work with ballasts) are much easier to set up because there's no need to remove the ballast. Simply remove the old fluorescent lights and replace them with LEDs and you're up and running. However, at some point that ballast is likely to fail, probably long before the LED light would.
If power is going into the ballast and none is flowing to the fluorescent light bulbs this is an indicator the ballast is dead – unfortunately much like the cool old guy named Blue in Old School (for all you Will Ferrell fans, Blue the character dies while, ahem, wrestling!!)
However, if the RF filter in the fluorescent ballast has a capacitor connected to ground, it may trip the breaker. Recommend contacting the fixture manufacturer to verify suitability for a ground fault or arc fault protected circuit.
An overheating ballast can become hot enough to ignite combustible ceiling tiles or any other combustible it contacts. Check behind the fixture for fire extension. Ballasts contain a transformer and a small capacitor.
If the ballast does contain PCBs, they are located inside the small capacitor or in the surrounding potting material. There would be approximately 1 to 1½ ounces of PCBs in the capacitor itself and lower levels in the potting compound, a black, tar-like substance that encapsulates the internal electrical components.
Standard ballasts consist of a core and coil assembly. On a typical fixture with two 4 foot 40 watt T-12 fluorescent lamps, the ballast consumes about 13 to 16 watts of electricity. Thus the total consumption of the two lamps plus the ballast is about 93 to 96 watts.
Effects of Usage
The 75,000-hour average lifespan can be affected by quick and constant power cycling. Voltage fluctuations can also shorten the ballast's useful life, so it's best to have a voltage regulator connected between the ballast and the power source.
A plug-and-play, or direct fit, linear LED is probably what you're imagining – a simple, one-for-one swap out of the original linear fluorescent lamp. This lamp works directly with the existing fluorescent ballast, so there is no rewiring or ballast change required.
All fluorescent bulbs require a ballast. All compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs require a ballast, which is often integrated. All HID bulbs require a ballast, which is sometimes integrated. No LED bulbs require a ballast, although some are engineered to work with an existing ballast.
If the existing fluorescent tube fixture you want to replace has a non-shunted tombstone, you can proceed with the ballast bypass procedure. Nonetheless, if the existing fixture offers a shunted tombstone, you should replace it with a non-shunted variant.
What does T8 mean on a ballast?
Specifically, the term "T8" indicates that the fixture is designed for T8 lamps, which are a specific lamp size (1 inch diameter). Below is a photo of a T8 fixture in a warehouse, shown with the T8 lamps removed. What is a T8 ballast? A T8 ballast is an electronic device that is mounted inside of the T8 fixture.
Method One - Use your smart phone camera
Stand under the light or a place close to the light and point your cell phone camera at the light. If you can see some strong dark strips flickering in your camera, it must be a magnetic ballast based light. Otherwise it should be an electronic ballast based light.
Since fluorescent bulbs cannot regulate current on their own, without a ballast, the bulbs can draw too much power and burn out. In addition to significantly shortening the lifespan of the bulb, this can create a safety hazard.
Issues with the Ballast
Without a properly operating ballast to limit the light's current, a fluorescent lamp connected to the electrical source would quickly and uncontrollably increase its current flow—causing the lamp to burning out. This is why a degrading ballast will cause the fluorescent lights to flicker.
A hot ballast smells like overheated magnet wire, which is what the ballast is made of.
Offered in dedicated or multi-volt (120-277V), these high-performance T8 instant-start ballasts also meet minimum efficiency requirements as established with the NEMA Premium® ballast program. These ballasts are offered in ballast factors: low wattage (. 77), normal light (. 87), and high (>1.15).
Ballast factor determines the light output of the lamps. For example, lamps powered by a . 88 ballast factor will produce less light than if they are powered by an equivalent ballast with a factor of 1.2. The ballast factor is primarily a determination of light output, but it also has an impact on energy consumption.
4 lamp instant start ballasts and 2 lamp rapid start ballasts use blue and red wires for individual connections, and yellow wires for common connections.
Ballast wires are 18 AWG. Use a blue wire connector for up to four 18 AWG wire connections. Use orange wire connector for more than four 18 AWG wire connections.
A starter is a small part that helps to ignite the fluorescent parts that bring light to your fluorescent tube. The starter is implanted together with a conventional ballast as part of a fixture in which your fluorescent tube is placed. You don't need a starter when the tube works with an electronic ballast.
Do ballasts lose power?
For example a typical “600W ballast” in reality consumes around 660W, the 60W is lost in heat. However there are units available on the market that do indeed achieve a significant increase in lumen output but they do this by consuming more power.
Do LED Lights Need Ballasts? An LED light does not require a ballast because it uses a component called a “driver” to regulate the power going into the bulb.
Ballast failure is often caused by the surrounding environment—mainly heat and moisture. When it's too hot or too cold, a ballast can burn or fail to start your lamps.
The good news is that a typical ballast will generally last about 20 years, so you won't have to worry about replacing them very often. However, cold environments and bad bulbs can factor into the mix, causing the lifespan of the ballast to decrease significantly.
We recommend that you always hire a qualified electrician to have a ballast repair or ballast replacement service done.
Can LED lamps work off of existing ballasts? Yes, if they have an internal driver than can work off that ballast. Philips, for example, has designed a tube that is compatible with an existing electronic ballast. Cue buzzword plug-and-play.
Overheated fluorescent lights can cause fires! Overheating of the ballast could result in the following: Ignition of nearby combustible materials.
