14 Facts About Electrical ballast

An electrical ballast is a device placed in series with a load to limit the amount of current in an electrical circuit.

An electrical ballast is a device that limits the current through an electrical load.

The Electrical ballast provides for the proper operation of the negative-resistance device by limiting current.

The Electrical ballast is a fixed resistor with usually two center taps, and the fan speed selector switch is used to bypass portions of the Electrical ballast: all of them for full speed, and none for the low speed setting.

Some Electrical ballast resistors have the property of increasing in resistance as current through them increases, and decreasing in resistance as current decreases.

Therefore, the Electrical ballast resistor reduces variations in current, despite variations in applied voltage or changes in the rest of an electric circuit.

The power lost in the resistive Electrical ballast is reduced because a smaller portion of the overall power is dropped in the Electrical ballast compared to what might be required with a fixed resistor.

An electronic ballast uses solid state electronic circuitry to provide the proper starting and operating electrical conditions to power discharge lamps.

An electronic Electrical ballast can be smaller and lighter than a comparably rated magnetic one.

An electronic Electrical ballast is usually quieter than a magnetic one, which produces a line-frequency hum by vibration of the core laminations.

For HID lamps, there is no improvement of the lamp efficacy in using higher frequency, but for these lamps the Electrical ballast losses are lower at higher frequencies and the light depreciation is lower, meaning the lamp produces more light over its entire lifespan.

Rapid start Electrical ballast applies voltage and heats the cathodes simultaneously.

Hybrid Electrical ballast has a magnetic core-and-coil transformer and an electronic switch for the electrode-heating circuit.

Reference Electrical ballast operates the lamp at its ANSI specified nominal power rating.