Few days ago, I switched off the kitchen light at end of the evening, it went out with a bang, and the RCD in the consumer unit had cut-out as well - not a split-load unit. Switched RCD back on, all OK, except kitchen light not working - the tube is good, checked in another fitting. Would this have been the lamp ballast failing? I have not known this before. I have now replaced the unit with a LED bar, far better I reckon.
Flourescent lamp failure.
- Thread starter Shed Steve
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Did it have a starter, if so when you took the fitting down you would have seen the blown up choke.
Starterless fittings have an electronic ballast, when these go they can take out the Rcd, the damage to the ballast is not usually visible unless you unscrew it, then you often see a black soot mark around the cut out in the casing on the back where its blown inside, thats where the ballasts earth connection touches the fittings casing whilst its screwed in.
Starterless fittings have an electronic ballast, when these go they can take out the Rcd, the damage to the ballast is not usually visible unless you unscrew it, then you often see a black soot mark around the cut out in the casing on the back where its blown inside, thats where the ballasts earth connection touches the fittings casing whilst its screwed in.
Not all of them. Starterless fitting were around a long time before electronic ballasts.
True, they were the "original Ballast" if its one of them he has certainly had his moneys worth out of the light.
They were good ballasts, yet many did not like the 58w slimmer tubes, remember them well from my Shop relamping days in the 80's
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Yes you did the right thing replacing with led, much better technology.
As an aside the Most inefficient and flickery light in our house is the only fluorescent, it's one of those round tubes in the bathroom. One day we will get around to replacing it! It did go with a fizzle rather than a bang one day but it was a loose connection to the ballast. After reterminating it it was as good as new.
Led can also be rubbish but generally if you get a good make they work well and don't do anything exciting!
As an aside the Most inefficient and flickery light in our house is the only fluorescent, it's one of those round tubes in the bathroom. One day we will get around to replacing it! It did go with a fizzle rather than a bang one day but it was a loose connection to the ballast. After reterminating it it was as good as new.
Led can also be rubbish but generally if you get a good make they work well and don't do anything exciting!
And I still have 40W versions in use in my workshop. Lucky I still have a box of spare tubes as the slim tubes really don't work in them. Someone tried and all it did was glow bright orange at the ends before it burnt out.
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Semi Resonant start? Think its been a while since i've seen one, I imagine loads have been taken out in the past 5 years as part of the LED changeover, especially as I seemed to see them most often in schools, and I think there was prbaby funding made available to them to switch to led
Thank-you all for your replies. I attach photos of the ballast, there appears to be no soot marks evident, which I was expecting.
The LED lamps are a great improvement, the colour temperature is variable as well, set this to Warm White.
The LED lamps are a great improvement, the colour temperature is variable as well, set this to Warm White.
Most went long before, as they only work with T12 tubes and not the slimmer T8.
Thats known as a Magnetic Choke rather than a ballast, always combined with a starter ,wheres the connecter block gone of it, they do occasionally fail open circuit, without any visible damage as the thing is pretty sealed apart from the connection end.
Though often you can smell the damage.
Normally these can be checked at the 2 choke connections where there should be a voltage from both In and Out terminals measured to neutral.
Though often you can smell the damage.
Normally these can be checked at the 2 choke connections where there should be a voltage from both In and Out terminals measured to neutral.
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Semi Resonant Start (SRS, sometimes called 'starterless') was invented by Thorn around the 1960's I believe and involved using a capacitor to raise the open circuit voltage & additional windings to heat the cathodes at power up to strike the tube, quite an interesting technology for nerdy types like me lol.
If anyone has any spare old fittings, SRS or Quick Start ballasts etc please PM me as I may be interested in purchasing them.
If anyone has any spare old fittings, SRS or Quick Start ballasts etc please PM me as I may be interested in purchasing them.
The units I'm familiar with are usually referred to as 'Quickstart' but I don't know if it's a knickname.
BT used them by the thousands with a very good reflector to provide a fairly narrow 'beam' of light straight down, I'd have said back into the 50's [don't quote me!]
AKAIC they consist of a standard power correction cap across the mains and a normal choke in series with 'live' and an 'autotransformer' with 4 terminals: big winding in the middle and a small winding at each end, the small wingings being connected across each heater with the higher voltage across the length of the tube. It's been 25 years since I installed a couple in my workshop so my memory could be telling porkies.
EDIT: Oh dear...
There are a few versions, I'm familiar with number 15 on page 209 of this:
http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/Catalogues/Thorn - Catalogue - 1984 UK.pdf
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This is the one that's in my kitchen, replacing it is still on my to do list, haven't decided what will go in it's place yet?!
The old tube went last year, the light only really gets used in the winter months
It does work with a t8 tube but not well, usually takes a few flicks of the switch
I think someone on here said the older tubes had a different gas inside?
The old tube went last year, the light only really gets used in the winter months
It does work with a t8 tube but not well, usually takes a few flicks of the switch
I think someone on here said the older tubes had a different gas inside?
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