Electronic & Digital Ballast Fact Page.
There's allot of
misinformation out there regarding Non ANSI & Non UL Electronic & Digital
Ballast's
Hopefully you find this page useful.
If you have any information we miss we will gladly review it.
You can find a few ANSI AND UL Electronic & Digital Ballast's
However those are clearly Marked and Known.
We are discussing the Non ANSI and Non UL Electronic & Digital Ballast's
Below are Txt Images
extracted from there respective sources Listed Directly above the image or
Txt.
Also our own opinions based on fact and our experience as a Commercial
Lighting Company in the R&D-Manufacture-Product Testing
The short version, If
you Electronic & Digital Ballast does not have an ANSI or UL listing you ought
to look for a ballast that does.
This is not due to marketing reasons rather to obtain full life from the lamp
aswell as ensure all safety rules are adhered to.
If you Notice there are No Commercially Sold Electronic & Digital Ballast's
that do both HPS and MH
There are several reasons for this, when it comes to Commercial Reliability
and overall Costs vs Payback, etc.
Lamps and ballasts need to be matched 100% when considering non ANSI Rated
Electronic & Digital Ballast Ballasts.
IE Custom Lamp/Ballast Packages or in the Horticulture Realm where these non
ANSI & Non UL Listed Balalsts
The Simple reason is if its not ANSI rated it may not Provide the majority of
lamps there full potential, or cause a fire hazard.
There are many reasons for this.
1.
We have found 99% of all Horticulture Electronic & Digital Ballast's are High
Frequency 400Hz-40,000Hz
Hz is the frequency of the power, The Cycles IE Pulses
IE 60Hz (USA Power) is 60 Cycles IE Pulses Per Second.
400Hz is 400 Cycles IE Pulses Per Second
40,000Hz is 40,000 Cycles IE Pulses Per Second
while in lamens theory the higher the better as it becomes closer to Direct
Current.
However the problem is 99.99999999% of all lamps are designed for 50-60Hz
*with the exception of the specific Lamps
Made for Very Specific Electronic & Digital Ballast, we will cover those
below.
That is one of the ANSI standards that is not met by these Horticulture
Branded Electronic & Digital Ballast
To a lamp that is designed for ANSI Hz rather its getting the High Hz that can
and literally rattles most lamps apart
IE the Arc tube disconnects from the Holders, thus not providing full life and
can cause a rupture of the arc tube or other issues.
This Proudly Posted @ Lumatek's WebSite
http://www.lumatek.co.uk/index.php/products/general-product-information.html
(at the bottom of page)
"If a unit has any leaking resin please relocate to a cooler area or place a
fan near the ballasts."
If left unatennded and the resin leaks on something hotter It could caouse
other issues or fires from something else overheating or igniting the resen.
That is not something you will ever hear from Philips, Advance, GE, Sylvania,
Matsushita Electric Works, ETC
None of the Electronic
& Digital Ballast's We have found without a ANSI and UL listing have a Lamp
shut off feature.
That will stop the ballast from Hot-Restriking the lamp While Hot or at end of
life.
This is not good for any lamp even Hot restrike Xenon Lamps that are made for
Hot Restrike.
As far as the
Electronic & Digital Ballast's Clamed Electricity Savings.
Outright this is debunked by the Cost difference from magnetic to Electronics
upfront & Cost to run for 15+ Years.
Below we list a 3rd parties Test Results to Confirm this statement.
Another Problem In the horticulture Realm if a Electronic & Digital
Ballast fails you can not service them (90%)
Unlike Magnetic Core that are typically 3 parts all available locally.
To a Plant hours is life and death, at the very least Stress that can cause
Undesirable effects.
Yet another issue not all Electronic & Digital Ballast's output there
Rated Watts
(we find this to in Low quality Magnetic Ballasts)
Below we list a 3rd parties Test Results to Confirm this statement
(there will be more
added soon)
Here is what GE has to say about
Electronic & Digital Ballast's
Electronic Ballasts
Electronic Ballasts use solid-state electronic components to start and operate
the ballasts.
Electronic ballasts often use IC chips and feedback to implement better
controls, and safety
features into ballasts. Electronic ballasts typically operate much more
efficiently than similar
Electromagnetic Ballasts. A few other benefits are small size, lightweight,
improved lumen maintenance, fault mode protection and better power regulation,
which results in better color consistency.
Low
Frequency Lamp Operation
GE analysis of internal and competitive HID lamps suggests that the most
compatible driving
waveform for an electronic ballast is a Low Frequency Square Wave (L.F.S.W.)
with low higher
order harmonic content. L.F.S.W. has been long established as a dependable
method of ballasting low Wattage HID lamps with significant industry standards
support.
Analysis of lamp data has shown that there are limited operating bands between
1 kHz to 200 kHz in which an electronic
ballast could operate a lamp wattage family without causing unacceptable arc
instability due to Acoustic Resonance.
Trend analysis of the A.R. maps show that this range extends well beyond
200 kHz. When the A.R.
structure maps are overlaid there is no consistent frequency band, which can
be identified as a stable location for ballast operation.
There are large variations in the A.R. structure maps between multiple lamp
vendors and from lamp type to
lamp type or burn position. A.R. may cause visual annoyance, lamp cycling,
shorten lamp life, and in extreme
cases result in arc tube rupture. Specific matched lamp – ballast high
frequency systems can be stable, however they limit
the extent that the individual members can be modified for future
improvements. Additionally, there
is no data on the long-term stability of the A.R. maps due to aging of the
lamp. Future re-lamping may
also create an unstable system due to changes in lamp arc tube geometry or
manufacture.
Lamp performance points to be considered:
Data on Electronic ballast technology has shown that it can greatly improve
the lumen maintenance of HID lamps over traditional EM reactor
or CWA ballast systems. However, no data are available to support improved
lamp performance on High Frequency vs. Low Frequency Square Wave driving
waveforms
Conclusions:
GE recommends operation of its high wattage CMH® and PulseArc® QMH HID lamps
on electronic ballasts that use a
Low Frequency Square Wave output such as the UltraMax® HID ballast,
GE-MH-250-400-MAX-208-207 or similar for optimal lamp performance.
High Frequency
GE does not make high frequency HID ballasts due to reasons described in the
Low Frequency Lamp Operation section above.
However, high frequency operation is applicable for matched lamp ballast
systems.
Caution must be taken when designing these systems for an application to make
sure that the ballast and lamp are compatible to avoid premature lamp failure
and safe operation.
If you look at this picture of the
GE Nuvation Ballast
You can see that it has its components spaced out and the Board is Thermally
Designed.
This is nothing like a "Horticulture Ballast"
This is only one sie there are other compontens on the other side.
Please Be patient the next 2 images are large but we wanted it in one source.
Image Source
www.eyehortilux.com
Image Source
www.eyehortilux.com
© Advanced Technology Solutions, LLC ~ Lighting Division, all rights protected.
Any other Images Trademarks & Copyrighted Material used IS the property of their respective owners.
Warning all Images and Cell/Tables have been Embedded with our Information
Prevent Competitors from Steeling Information we worked compiled.
Customers are Fully Authorized to Post our information in Public Forums
As long as we are Given Credit or Linked by Poster.