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Question for zink
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Posted by engineeredgarden 7, nw Alabama (My Page) on Wed, May 13, 09 at 13:47
| Can the following ballast be overdriven? Thanks
EG |
Here is a link that might be useful: GE ballast
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Question for zink
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Hi, I'm not zink, but I have a set of 11 T8 fixtures back to back, T8 x 2, 32W. My ballast wiring diagram is exactly the same as yours, it is made in China (or course), and I over drive it by attaching both hot (blue) sides together to both pins on one side. Before I hard wired it, I tested it out, by simply first connecting just one blue wire to the shorted pins at one side, and then just touching the second blue wire to the first blue wire (handle with insulated long nose pliers if you're worried about electricity, of just be sure to handle the wire only by the insulated part :) ). It will be immediately obvious if the ballast is overdriving for you, but from the looks of it, it has the same basic guts as the ballasts I'm using.
For some reason, one of my ballasts blew out after 2 months of use, but the other 21 ballasts are still holding up fine. The ballast blew right at the time that I was flicking the fixture on and off, FWIW. I got my ballasts cheap from ebay, from someone selling off a whole bunch of them that got rained on during Katrina, and the cases got a bit rusty. |
RE: Question for zink
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- Posted by zink 6a (My Page) on
Sat, May 23, 09 at 15:34
| EG I was wondering if you were going to buy this ballast, or if you already own it. The GE ULTRAMAX ballast series has 3 versions - L(low)N(normal)and H(high), each with a different Ballast Factor(BF). The particular ballast in your link is a L(low) version. The BF is an indication of how many lumens the ballast/lamp combo will actually emit relative to the lamp's published lumen rating. For example: If a lamp is rated at 1000 lumens, and is powered by a ballast with a BF of .89, then it will put out 890 lumens when lit. Your "L" ballast has a BF of .77 - quite low. The "N" version has a BF of .87, and the "H" has a BF of 1.15. The measurements that have been taken of overdriven(OD) 32wT8 e-ballasts have all shown a 1.7 increase in current per lamp. This can be multiplied by the BF of the ballast to predict the OD light output. So, for the ULTRAMAX series:
L = 0.77 x 1.7 = 1.31
N = 0.87 x 1.7 = 1.48
H = 1.15 x 1.7 = 1.96
Obviously, if you have the option, you would want the "H" version. The question you want answered here is whether it is overdriveable. Normally, the 32wT8 e-ballasts on the market have a couple of different external wiring designs which all appear to be overdriveable, as experiments indicate. This is due to an internal resonant circuit design which allows their outputs to immediately sychronize and work together. The GE ULTRAMAX ballasts do have that same external wiring. There is one factor that makes these ballasts different, however - they have a "muti-volt power detection" function which allows them to be connected to any voltage between 120 and 277. I have not played with this particular ballast series, so I do not know if that special design has any influence in its ability to be overdriven. I have OD'ed a similar Advance "mutivolt" ballast, so that is good news. However, I did read of one individual who says he tried to overdrive an ULTRAMAX ballast, and he said it didn't put out as much light. He also stated that he wasn't sure if he wired it correctly, and that it wasn't damaged in the process (it still worked normally). So there. If you want to try it, as klinko suggests, it probably will work. If you do, write back and tell us what happened. Zink |
RE: Question for zink
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| oh, of course i forgot, u want to be sure that it has a normal ballast factor; it will show drawn amps for the two lamp setup as being about 0.6A if I remember well. |
RE: Question for zink
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| My apologies for my mis-spellings of "synchronize" and "multivolt" in my post above. That is very embarassing, considering I won my 8th grade spelling bee. This site could use a chellspecker. Zink |
RE: Question for zink
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I have some 4-lamp GE UltraMax (type H/high) Ballasts, and
can verify that they will not overdrive...(the reason
they sit unused in the corner of my bedroom) If you try to overdrive with these instead of a brighter
light you get just a very dim glow. |
RE: Question for zink
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| I guess I forgot about this post...Sorry! Thanks for everyone's input on this ballast, I will probably not try it.../sigh EG |
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