What is a ballast used for?
ballast – A device required by electric-discharge light sources such as fluorescent or HID lamps to regulate voltage and current supplied to the lamp during start and throughout operation.
What is ballast in LED lighting?
A ballast regulates the current that’s coming at a lamp. It gives an initial burst just to get things going, then it makes sure the electric current is controlled and steady. Not getting the lamp’s shoes all wet. A ballast for Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights is not required – instead a driver is required.
What is a reflector in a light fixture?
Optical reflectors are specially shaped, highly reflective sheets (typically silver-coated or polished aluminum) that retrofit into standard fluorescent fixtures. Their unique shape and high reflectivity improve light focus from the fixture into the workplace.
Do you need a ballast for LED lights?
No LED bulbs require a ballast, although some are engineered to work with an existing ballast. You will find ballast-compatible or “plug-and-play” LEDs that are designed to replace linear fluorescents, compact fluorescents, or HIDs. Incandescent and halogen lamps do not require a ballast.
What’s the difference between aggregate and ballast?
As nouns the difference between aggregate and ballast is that aggregate is a mass, assemblage, or sum of particulars; something consisting of elements but considered as a whole while ballast is (nautical) heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.
What is in a ballast?
A magnetic ballast (also called a choke) contains a coil of copper wire. The magnetic field produced by the wire traps most of the current so only the right amount gets through to the fluorescent light. That amount can fluctuate depending on the thickness and length of the copper wire.
What does ballast compatible mean?
Ballast-compatible or plug-and-play LED tube lamps directly replaces fluorescent tube lamps without the need of changing any circuit on the lighting fixture.
What is reflector bulb?
Incandescent reflector lamps (IRLs) are the very common cone-shaped light bulbs most typically used in track lighting and “recessed can” light fixtures (low-cost light fixtures that mount flush with the ceiling such that the socket and bulb are recessed into the ceiling).
What is reflector made of?
Reflectors are usually made of glass, metal or plastic material. Plastic reflectors are covered with metals like aluminum in order to obtain reflecting feature. Aluminum covering will direct the light with high efficiency.
Is an LED driver the same as a ballast?
Fluorescents use ballasts, while LEDs use drivers. (LED drivers can be considered ballasts as well, but most documentation prefers ‘drivers’ or ‘power supply’ to avoid confusion with fluorescent ballasts.) Both ballasts and drivers do more than simply charge up their respective lights.
What is an adaptable ballast?
“Adaptable ballast” is a term NLPIP uses to describe an electronic ballast with special circuitry that enables it to operate multiple lamp types, operate different quantities of lamps, and/or operate on multiple input voltages.
What is a ballast and what does it do?
What is a ballast? In a fluorescent lighting system, the ballast regulates the current to the lamps and provides sufficient voltage to start the lamps. Without a ballast to limit its current, a fluorescent lamp connected directly to a high voltage power source would rapidly and uncontrollably increase its current draw.
How many fluorescent lamps can a ballast handle?
Luminaires typically contain one to four fluorescent lamps, so most ballasts are designed to operate exactly 1, 2, 3, or 4 lamps. An adaptable ballast may be able to operate either 1, 2, 3, or 4 lamps, although more likely it will operate two lamp quantities (e.g., 1 or 2 lamps, or 3 or 4 lamps). Input voltage.
Why do some ballasts have a separate circuit?
Thus, some ballasts have a separate circuit that provides a low voltage to heat the lamp electrodes during lamp starting and typically during lamp operation (Hammer, 1995).