Hi,
I'm looking for some advice from someone who is familiar with magnetic ballasts being wired in series with one another for vintage thorn strip lights, ie 8ft but specifically the 6ft twin batten.
I've bought some 70/75w spl and helvar ballasts off ebay to have installed by a professional electrician at my local church to fix some faulty battens. In each case one tube works and the other doesnt but on the one which doesnt you can hear the starter going mental. You get the odd flash but generally the tube is unlit and the ends do not glow. New tubes and starters haven't solved the issue so there is a problem inside the batten. I'm not a qualified electrician so I haven't removed the cover off the battens to look inside, but i assumed it would be two ballasts, two capacitors and 2 starter sockets. Thing is looking on ebay I've seen some 6ft twin thorn battens for sale which have 3 ballasts inside and only 1 capacitor. They are 2xG69428.4 ballasts in series for 1x75w 1800mm tube and a G69392.4 ballast presumably not in series which can take a 1500mm or 1800mm tube. The capacitor is rated at 5 micro farad.
This has made me question if I've bought the correct ballasts to fix these fixtures. If one of the series ballasts has failed I dont imagine it could be replaced by a non series type? And if both series ballasts were replaced by one I've bought I'm guessing the capacitor rating would then be incorrect?
Has anyone any thoughts on this old thorn battens and how they work? Or even better a wiring diagram...
I was hoping to do the church a favour by prolonging the life of their old lights while they raise funds for new crappy leds.
Thanks for reading,
Rich
I'm looking for some advice from someone who is familiar with magnetic ballasts being wired in series with one another for vintage thorn strip lights, ie 8ft but specifically the 6ft twin batten.
I've bought some 70/75w spl and helvar ballasts off ebay to have installed by a professional electrician at my local church to fix some faulty battens. In each case one tube works and the other doesnt but on the one which doesnt you can hear the starter going mental. You get the odd flash but generally the tube is unlit and the ends do not glow. New tubes and starters haven't solved the issue so there is a problem inside the batten. I'm not a qualified electrician so I haven't removed the cover off the battens to look inside, but i assumed it would be two ballasts, two capacitors and 2 starter sockets. Thing is looking on ebay I've seen some 6ft twin thorn battens for sale which have 3 ballasts inside and only 1 capacitor. They are 2xG69428.4 ballasts in series for 1x75w 1800mm tube and a G69392.4 ballast presumably not in series which can take a 1500mm or 1800mm tube. The capacitor is rated at 5 micro farad.
This has made me question if I've bought the correct ballasts to fix these fixtures. If one of the series ballasts has failed I dont imagine it could be replaced by a non series type? And if both series ballasts were replaced by one I've bought I'm guessing the capacitor rating would then be incorrect?
Has anyone any thoughts on this old thorn battens and how they work? Or even better a wiring diagram...
I was hoping to do the church a favour by prolonging the life of their old lights while they raise funds for new crappy leds.
Thanks for reading,
Rich