Light ballasts - other uses than for lights?

Thread Starter

RogueRose

Joined Oct 10, 2014
375
I was at a second hand shop the other day and they had a number of very large items which were either ballasts or transformers. They were very heavy (10-15 lbs like a MOT) or even maybe 2x the weight of a 1200w MOT (20-30lbs). The box was really non-descript but showed some diagrams of wires that might be found on a light ballast.

Anyway, I am wondering if there is anything that these can be used for other than their intended use?
Is there much difference between a flourescent, UV or metal halide light ballasts?


Also, I have a 2' flourescent light which case is VERY light (it almost seems empty except for a switch). I thought that these bulbs needed a ballast. I have also seen the little cylindrical things, about the diameter of an incadescent bulb screw base, with maybe 2 metal feet/connectors at the bottom. Are these ballasts as well and if so, do they work as well as the heavy ones?
 
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#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
I am wondering if there is anything that these can be used for other than their intended use?
Yes.
Is there much difference between a flourescent, UV or metal halide light ballasts?
Yes.
Also, I have a 2' flourescent light which case is VERY light (it almost seems empty except for a switch). I thought that these bulbs needed a ballast.
They do, and it's in there. It has merely been converted to a high frequency switching style ballast.
I have also seen the little cylindrical things,
Those are called, "starters". They provide the first spark which penetrates the length of the bulb so the next electricity can ride through on the ionized gas the first spark caused.
 

MikeML

Joined Oct 2, 2009
5,444
The big ballasts are internally wired as a step-up auto-transformer with an output voltage approaching ~1kV. They provide no isolation from the AC line. Be damn careful if playing with them....
 

tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
Given their modular core and coil construction they are pretty easy to take apart and rework for other applications plus given that they are designed to operate continuous duty at maximum rated power while in high ambient temperatures they take a thermal beating and overloading far better than any microwave oven transformer could ever dream of!
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,619
I have also seen the little cylindrical things, about the diameter of an incadescent bulb screw base, with maybe 2 metal feet/connectors at the bottom. Are these ballasts as well and if so, do they work as well as the heavy ones?
Those sound like the starter switch from older fluorescent lamps.
They connected the heaters together initially to warm up the tube gas, and opened by bi-metal strip.
I recall in the very initial installations of fluorescent's, it was common in large work shops where the heat had been left off over the weekend to use a paraffin lamp or propane torch wafted along the tubes to heat the gas up to get them to strike.
Max.
 
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tcmtech

Joined Nov 4, 2013
2,867
There were a number of different types of fluorescent lamp starters over the years. The oldest ones I am aware of used the bimetallic strip to warm up the bulb filaments then opened up to get the arc to start in the tube.

The later ones replaced the bimetallic strip with a small neon or similar rare gas type of voltage break over device that initially let enough current through to warm up the filaments then once it got warm enough itself went into a sort of higher voltage break over pulsing mode that caused the iron core type ballasts to create short HV pulses well above their line voltage generated output levels that would further improve the fluorescent tube arc striking when cold or as it got older.
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
Maybe I'm wrong about the starters providing the first spark. Maybe I was thinking about a gas ignitor.:oops:
It would be a spark if there was a gap for it to jump across.

A florescent starter shorts the gas in the tube so the heaters and the ballast are all in series across the mains, when the starter contacts open, the ballast produces a back emf to strike the tube.
 
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