The beginning of the end of the era of electromagnetic ballasts

VAll gas discharge lamps, due to their negative internal resistance, cannot work directly with mains voltage and need suitable ballasts, which on the one hand limit and regulate electricity lamps, on the other hand, provide reliable ignition.

Ballast is a lighting product with the help of which gas-discharge lamps are powered from the electrical network, providing the necessary modes of ignition, ignition and operation of gas-discharge lamps, structurally designed in the form of one apparatus or several separate blocks.

In accordance with the common European classification, choke-type electromagnetic ballasts are subdivided according to the level of power losses as follows:

• Class D — Maximum loss ballast (least economical)

• Class C. — standard types of ballasts

• Class B1 — ballast with reduced losses compared to the standard

• Class B2 — Ballast with particularly low losses

Electronic ballasts (electronic ballasts) are divided into 3 classes:

• AZ — unregulated electronic ballasts

• A2 — unregulated electronic ballasts (with less loss than AZ)

• A1 — adjustable electronic ballasts

European Commission Directive 2000/55/EC, in order to push cheap electromagnetic ballasts out of the EU market and accelerate the widespread adoption of electronic ballasts, banning the sale and use of: from 21 May 2002 class D ballast from 21 November 2005 — Class C ballast was prescribed.

Thus, from 2006, manufacturers of lamps with LL will have to supplement them only with electromagnetic ballasts of classes B 1, B 2 and highly economical electronic ballasts. Keep in mind that Russian enterprises in most cases produce ballasts of the lowest class e.

The mentioned directive of the European Commission may be somewhat delayed, but it will inevitably have an impact on manufacturers and the market of LL lamps in our country as well.

Due to the decrease in the use of electromagnetic ballasts in the following years, the "niche" for the development of the electronic ballast market is inevitably expanded. Taking advantage of this situation, a number of companies began to produce so-called "cheap electronic ballasts of a new standard", misleading uninformed consumers.

It is necessary to clearly understand that the price of electronic ballasts can be sharply reduced only by reducing reliability and losing a number of properties and functions:

1. The service life of «cheap» electronic ballasts (25-30 thousand hours) is about 2 times less than that of high-quality devices.

2. The circuit for «cheap» electronic ballasts does not provide preheating of the LL electrodes during the start-up period.Cold starting of lamps shortens their rated life, especially with a significant number of on-off cycles.

3. «Cheap» electronic ballasts are deprived of such an important function as automatic adjustment of the LL output power when the mains voltage fluctuates. The range of supply voltage fluctuations is from 200 to 250 V).

4. Automatic shutdown of LLs at the end of their service life is not guaranteed with "cheap" electronic ballasts.

5. Unlike standard quality electronic ballasts, "cheap" units can only be powered by AC.

The conclusions from the above are unequivocal:

• The use of «cheap» ballasts leads to an increase in operating costs due to the lower reliability of the devices and a reduction in the operating life of the LL and therefore does not promise anything to the user / except economic losses.

• the choice of the type and manufacturer of electronic ballasts should be approached very carefully and focus mainly on high-quality devices from well-known manufacturers on the market.