Are We Making Light of Electronic Ballasts

My first exposure to electronic ballasts was, it now seems, light years ago (no pun intended), while I was working in the swank and well-equipped central R D labs in Bombay of one of India s largest electrical manufacturers. That company is to India, probably what Siemens is to Germany — with a huge and diversified market share in almost everything electrical.  

of all the hot, confusing, bustling places on earth, may actually form the best place to see what the brouhaha about ballasts is all about. It is the perfect testing ground (and potential graveyard) for all electronic ballasts, big and small, the ultimate leveler if ever 

electronic ballasts cost more, but you are supposed to get paid back handsomely in a few years in reduced energy costs. Some governments also continue to contemplate subsidies to help consumers afford such ballasts. But I don t think it has happened yet. 

Note that the fluorescent tube also responds rather positively, in terms of its own life and performance, when driven at over 20 kHz (as in an electronic ballast), rather than with 60 Hz (as in magnetic ballasts). Tube-replacement costs are thus significantly reduced with electronic ballasts. But, wait What about the life of the ballast itself That is another story altogether  

Electronic ballasts unfortunately have been plagued by failures (see http //lightingdesignlab. com/commercial/articles/Energy Efficiency.htm). So how do we as traditional power supply engineers provoke incipient failures in power supplies We increase the stress levels, especially during design phases. Simple bum-ins are actually too kind to the system  

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