Flouresent lighting questions for the wizards

I wouldn't screw around with any fuses in the Buck-Boost transformer at all - just feed it from a 2-pole 240V 20A breaker if you're using all 12-gauge wiring, 15A breaker if some is 14 or16-ga cords.

If you want to save yourself some heartache, get panel-mount fuseholders and 3A or 5A fast-blow fuses, put one on the side of each fixture connected to the Hot lead to each ballast.

With a dozen fixtures in a Carport mounted at 8' - 9' it's not a huge problem to track down a shorted ballast...

BUT it's a good habit to fuse 277V lights, because when you can put 30 to 50 High-Bay fixtures on the same 277V leg in a Warehouse, tracking down a single shorted fixture will take you all day (or more) and drive you nuts as they yell "What's taking you so long? We can't work with the lights off!"

Whereas the one fixture with the burned ballast will pop it's fuse and isolate itself - You find that fuse blown, check the ballast before you replace the fuse.

-->--

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)
Loading thread data ...

Arnt they so rated? I assumed (ass you and me..yah I know) that they would be rated for at least that much. No true?

And thanks!!

Gunner

-- "Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry

Reply to
Gunner

Indeed. While my shop has VFDs, and other Stuff..I like to keep it as "clean" as possible. Ive had to hunt down too many issues in the machine shops I service to jumble it all up

Gunner

-- "Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry

Reply to
Gunner

5W+ VHF or UHF two-way handheld radio, preferably on an unused frequency. Stick the antenna between the bulbs, and sweep back and forth while keyed, saying "AAAAAuudio!" - Bing! External Starter.

Still means you've got a lamp with a bad filament, or a weak ballast that isn't putting out start pulses, or it's way cold below the rated Start temperature. The first two need fixing.

-->--

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)

Excellent suggestion!! I have a coffee can filled with new fuse holders . Much obliged!!

Gunner

-- "Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry

Reply to
Gunner

Or the fixture isn't grounded. I ran into a new fixture that was installed on old knob & tube wiring that was erratic. Touch the fixture and it would light. I put a .01µF 2KV ceramic disk capacitor between neutral & the floating fixture to cure it.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

If the lamps fire on 240, I can't see any problem just using

240V. If they don't ignite, then boost may be necessary. GE seems to say their magnetic 277V ones are rated "Line Voltage Regulation (+/-) 5 %" but not sure what that means... less light output at lower voltage? Won't work at all?

Test a unit for 24H and see what temp the ballast is...

[There are no 240V one listed but the newest electronic ones are often "120-277"...]

While the 277V ballasts were manufactured to run from a 480 wye to neutral; I can not believe that they have one leg of the input grounded. But measure with an ohmmeter, and be sure. And do a bench test with a unit safely fused.

Measure. Best way would be a test setup with a 120V -> 240/277 transformer, and then put a Kill-A-Watt

in the 120 supply. This will tell you the true watts of a fixture, and the current & power factor. {Watts * time is what you pay PGE for; but the transformers are limited by current....

Read what DoN said about relays. Control the fixtures with relays to gain the flexibility you want. Note the tradeoffs in lamp life with cycling.

Reply to
David Lesher

Some are only rated for 125 volts AC

Reply to
clare

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.