The right value capacitor across the switch terminals can prevent momentary arcing that's due to the switch contacts almost touching during part of the switching cycle. They highrer the voltage the wider the gap the arc can reach across. What value capacitor will prevent the arcing on the output, high voltage side, depends on the ballast and bulb operating characteristics. Maybe one of the EEs can help you there.
Whether the Ballasts are remote mounted or not shouldn't affect whether the on/off switch arcs *if* the switch is on the input side of the ballast. I'd rather have my switches on the input wires and run the wires to where I want a switch than put the swtich on the wires that are closest -- I'd rather not fiddle with the high voltage if I don't have to and I only have to intall the wires once.
***************************** Waveform Technology UNIX Systems Administrator
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