how do ballasts fail?

poor boy. If you dont now the answere what are you charging your customers so much for;

If I hire an electrician I would expect him to know a little about what he is working on.

Trouble is it would read 240 if the choke was short or ok.. As you say it was from Neweys, they are quite helpfull so I would just ask for another unit to "replace the faulty one that I'll bring back later" and try changing out the lamps, If this is no good then its easier to swap out the whole fitting for a new one and it goes down to one of thoes jobs that the manufacturer screwed you out of ya 50 quid profit..win some...lose some!

sQuick..

The photocell is easy to test....drop or no drop...after that there are only two components here. The balast and the bulbs. If swapping the bulbs, which would have the telltale black ends on them, does not solve the problem then it's pretty easy from there. Since these things vary so much it's not worth the time to troubleshoot them. I would keep some bulbs and ballasts in inventory so you can just quickly swap your way out of the problem. This way, very few recalls or return visits and quick repairs and thus more money in your pocket!! I still own a small automation repair business and simplifying is a key to getting in and out fast with check in hand! Keep a reasonable stock of parts. Your customers will never mind a small markup in price as compared to the inconvenience or expense of the problem......good luck...but like the other guy said...you win some ya lose some!......Happy Holiday....Ross

I remember an old salesman from the 70's giving me a tip for the repair business....He said "If you can't dazzle em with brilliance, then baffle em with bullshit".....just having fun here on your red face comment.....You did the right thing...whenever you hit a wall, tell the customer you will return with parts. It buys you time to think about the problem and to maybe round up some parts....good luck, Ross

wrong,,,but right :)

Hey asshole. You do not know what you are talking about. If there is a shorted turn a lot more current will flow. That is aside from the fact that ballasts are step up transformers. A shorted turn will cause one hell of a lot more current.

nothing...........Did

nothing...........Did

Then when you do not know what you are talking about do not start off by calling some one a name. In any case it is not all the same. A choke and a transformer are two different things although a choke , or more properly an inductance can be built into a transformer.

What kind of florescents bulbs are you useing that cost 30 pounds. Thats about 45 dollars here. We buy them, the 8 footers for about $2.40 here. Plus sales tax of course.

comment.....You

Many (even most?) other parts of the world are not encombered by the low US mains voltage, and do not require the stepup transformer in ballasts for driving even the longest fluorescent tubes. The original poster did make it clear he's running in a 240V area, where a fluorescent tube ballast is normally just a choke/inductor.

No need for excuses. I wouldn't hire you to install a florescent light if you did not know the basics of a ballast. Do you have Radio Shacks in England. For $35 you can purchase a digital voltmeter, 1/2 hour of what you charge, hardly an expensive device. You can purchase a cheap analong one, that would do the job for about $.5.00 My origonal comment still holds. I would not pay some one 60 or 70 pounds for an hour, just to put in a florescent bulb.. Unless of course you have one hell of a Union. I was a member of Local 3 the electricians union and we did not get any where near that much an hour. In any case, I gave you the correct information about ballasts.

Oh one more thing, you don't even need a meter to check a ballast with a shorted turn. Your hand will do the job. If it has a shorted turn the lamp will not light and it will get warm or hot and the lamp will not light. If it is open, then it will stay cold and again the lamp will not light. That is basic.

Oh !! Here a ballast refers to a device used for florescent bulbs. Here we buy a little light with a 7.5 watt bulb and a built in photocell for about $2.00 or get 5 of them for about $10 at costco.

I have a pretty one ( Like a carraige lamp) in front of my house with a proximity sensor and a photo sensor that keeps it from coming on in the day time.

When I drive up at night it comes on and gives me light to open the door. That costs me 16 dollars at Builders Eporium. That must be some fixture for 30 pounds. Is it gold plated. ;-)

customer,i,m

Oh! How provincial of me. I prefer 110. It takes a little longer to kill you if you are careless.

In which case a shorted turn will make a nice explosion as the lamp overloads. In any case it turns out that he was not referring to a florescent ballast . He was referring to a fixture with a light sensor to turn a lamp on. But at the price he was paying, it must have been gold plated. ;-) Another difference of terminology. My misunderstanding.

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Man, ever heard of sentence structure? Your writing's extremely hard to follow. It helps to put together something that's easy to follow if you want people to read it. You have no pattern in punctuations and it's full of spelling errors.

s wrote:

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Pre-heat start is hard on lamps. Good portion of fluorescent fixtures are installed in commercial setups running 277V, yet we don't see pre-heat glow starter lamps.

Andrew Gabriel wrote: