Electronic ballasts - what every fluorescent lamp needs!

About a couple of years ago, in our office (a five-story administrative back), we began to change fluorescent lamps with conventional ballasts to electronic lamps. In appearance, the lamps are no different, only the new ones have a different filling - there are no throttles and starters, but there is an electronic ballast. So these new fixtures turned out to be very problematic. The lamps are constantly on, then the electronic ballasts themselves do not work. With luminaires with conventional starters and throttles, everything is much simpler and understandable where to look for a malfunction. In general, we are now returning to what was happening along the way.I don’t know, maybe there are all problems due to the fact that the electronic ballasts from us were bought the cheapest - plastic double-lamp LPOs, it may be that there is some kind of Chinese electronics there, but only that the electronic ball lamps break down much more often and are repaired they are much more difficult, I can confirm this.

I agree to 110%!

Electronic ballasts fail very often - when the lamp burns out (if you do not have time to replace it in time), the electronic ball is pushing, trying to start the lamp, and hello!

In luminaires with chokes, the starter is also a fuse. Those. when the lamp burns out after some time, the starter becomes unusable, but it costs a penny compared to electronic ballasts!

Chokes burn out mainly due to factory defects. Over 2 years of servicing 4 stores, 1 choke burned out in a new lamp, a week after installation.

And how many electronic ballasts failed !!! Therefore, there is a trick - we don’t throw out the lights, but buy parts and remake them into throttle ones!

Electromagnetic ballasts, consisting of chokes, starters, capacitors, are uneconomical devices with large losses. In this case, electronic ballasts are silent devices with small power losses, instantly flickering the lamp, without the stroboscopic effect and pulsations of light, with a large power factor. They automatically turn off the lamp when it fails (no lamp blinking).

In cheap fixtures, accordingly, cheap electronic ballasts are used, in which there is no presence of a number of properties and functions of high-quality electronic ballasts. Such devices have a shorter service life than high-quality electronic ballasts of well-known manufacturers. The use of cheap electronic ballasts is not economically viable, since they shorten the life of fluorescent lamps. They do not allow pre-heating the electrodes of the fluorescent lamp before starting, i.e. “cold” ignition of the lamps is performed, especially when they are constantly turned on and off, and such electronic ballasts themselves are characterized by low reliability. Conclusion: do not buy cheap fixtures with low-quality starting-sweeping devices and everything will be fine.

It's like that. Only in our organizations some people buy equipment, including lamps, and electricians have to do maintenance and repairs. Save on the ruble, and then spend on 10 .... the economy "in Russian"!

Indeed, cheap electronic ballasts very often fail, but I heard that something can be re-soldered in them and they continue to work, and according to reviews, electronic ballasts become almost "eternal". Maybe someone will tell you exactly how to make such an upgrade?

Electronic ballasts are burning because the cheapest components are used there, and soldering the C890 posistor (25 rubles) parallel to the high-voltage capacitor between the filaments of the L. lamp - will allow you to get a "hot start", and the lamps stop burning out (similar ones are used in Camelion Classic lamps, Pro - claimed resource
500,000 inclusions, for comparison, the Eco series without a posistor, only 15,000 inclusions)

Good afternoon ! Could you take a video or a photo about what the C890 posistor is, and how to properly solder this element? Many thanks !

How to remake the connection scheme of fluorescent lamps 4 * 18 to 2 * 36 ???

The native Chinese epra from the magnum lamp failed. Replaced with a new feron. I put a lamp there, which was in the next socket with the epra still working, but it does not work from the feron. What happened?

Good evening! Please tell me if there is an 1x36 epra, will it open the lamp at 18W or can I connect two.If possible, give a wiring diagram. Thank you

And also the epic has large starting currents, I ran into a problem when, with the installed 8 epic, when the lights are turned on, a "mini short circuit" occurs for a split second. And because of this, about once every half a year, you have to change the switch. This is not to mention the fact that the epra creates a lot of noise for TV and radio equipment. Now I’m thinking how can I get rid of all these advantages of ep ...

Sergei,
This problem is related to charging the filter capacitor. Immediately after switching on, almost a short circuit really occurs. In normal electronic ballasts, a special thermistor is installed that suppresses inrush current. If this is not in your electronic ballasts (and this, by the way, speaks of their quality), you can install a 4.7 Ohm resistor in series with the electronic ballasts (with a power of at least 4 W and necessarily wire).

Colleagues, tell me, is the replacement of electronic ballasts a service under maintenance and repair, or is it considered a repair?

Denis, replacement of electronic ballasts during maintenance refers to TR and KR, and is carried out in accordance with the ballast. In cases of failure before the deadline, this is an accident. And accordingly, the repair. Moreover, maintenance is essentially a “cosmetic” function, but TP is allowed to be carried out within the framework of maintenance, that is, according to the situation.

Electronic ballasts are generally extremely unreliable devices and the more expensive they are, the more they burn out (usually protective automation and burn out in the first place), taking with them to the next world and new lamps. The same goes for LED lamps (they burn out a month after installation “thanks to the“ cheap pseudo drivers. ”So, as practice has shown, lamps with starters and chokes are not economical but unkillable and reliable. Everything else is a purely marketing move to get money out of your pockets customers.

The only plus of electronic ballasts is that they do not heat up practically, but basically electronic ballasts are shit. Lamp ruins for a month of work. After the electronic ballast, I again switched to a throttle with a starter.

I connected 6 fixtures from the EPR in series - three were lit, and the other three did not start although voltage was supplied. What could be the reason? Could it be a marriage?

Yes, I put part of the lamps with electronic ballasts and already regretted it.

I agree that some electronic ballasts do not work correctly and quickly burn out ... but only some ... In general, electronic ballasts are a very good thing and I am pleased with them .... You just need to know some secrets and there will be no questions with the ERP ...

All these electronic ballasts are full of rubbish. With dubious energy savings, buying, repairing, replacing is extremely expensive. And they fail, oh how often, even expensive models. Bulb Ilyich- the most profitable purchase! Well, if you want to save a little on electricity, we put the usual unkillable chokes. Everything else is a purely promotion to support the Chinese manufacturer!

Alexander, I do not agree with you about the indestructibility of conventional chokes. The quality of ballasts of modern production leaves much to be desired. Chokes and starters fail more often than fluorescent lamps themselves. Personally, he himself twice witnessed the ignition of a fluorescent lamp due to damage to the throttle. So I think that in terms of quality, electronic ballasts can be put on a par with conventional old-style ballasts. Considering the other advantages of electronic ballasts given in the article, they win in everything.

The purchase of conventional incandescent lamps, I would not call profitable. They are not economical and very unreliable. Now they produce such lamps that burn out very quickly.Of course, there are lamps that work for more than one year, but this is very rare. As a result, we get additional waste on the constant purchase of new lamps and large, compared with other types of lamps, energy costs.

If we consider the issue of energy saving, then, in my opinion, the most optimal option is LED lighting. LED lamps are gradually becoming cheaper and amid rising electricity prices they are quite economical and are justified in the first months of operation.

In conventional fluorescent lamps, fluorescent lamps can be replaced by LEDs of the appropriate type. To do this, you do not need to convert the lamp, but simply install the lamps and connect them directly to the 220 V network. The advantage is higher reliability, greater energy savings, no need to use ballasts. The modern range of LED lighting offers analogues of absolutely all types of fluorescent lamps.

I have a question! Why is the luminescence of fluorescent lamps not uniform? From the beginning to the end there are transverse dark stripes, such as zebras, which are missing, are included in the 2x36w epra.

Ruslan,
TP can be performed in the scope of maintenance. And any replacement or repair of electronic ballasts is KR or TR