Re: [APD] Aromat Ballasts Arrived

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Electronic ballasts use inverters to increase the house current 60Hz frequency to something much much higher (20kHz, 30kHz, or even as high as 80 kHz). Higher frequencies are impeded by less fewer millihenries so the choke coil can be much small in an electronic ballast and have the impedance (at the higher freq) as a plain coil (operating at 60Hz). The  much smaller coil significantly lessens the overall weight. Plain ballasts usually pot the coil with some material to help with insulation and even out the heat distribution. Electronic ballasts sometimes are epoxy-filled although the only reason I can think of is to prevent user "tampering" or to make it harder for others to see how they are built.
 
The AHS (Fulham) ballasts operate around 80 khz, iirc.
IceCaps are about half that or less, again, iirc.
 
Don't know the freq for your ballasts.
 
The higher frequencies also mean that any spurious vibrations will be inaudible, unlike the 60Hz hum of some the plain coil ballasts. The higher freqs also help to maintain the bulb temp, espeically if the  sinsousoidal wave is conberted to a square wave,  which accounts for some of the increased energy efficiency of fluorescents on electronic ballasts.
 
Have fun and don't drop them on your toes,
sh
 

 
* * * * * * * * * * * It's new; it's fun; it's the New England Aquatic Plant Society NEAPS, is a newly formed organization interested in aquarium flora and fauna. http://www.ne-aquaticplants.com/ 


----- Original Message ----
From: Jerry Baker <jerry at bakerweb_biz>
To: APD <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 4:43:21 PM
Subject: [APD] Aromat Ballasts Arrived


Dude! These things are heavy. Even though they're electronic, I would 
guess that they're easily 6 lbs. each. The Icecap ballasts were more 
like ounces rather than pounds. I'm still at work though so I can't 
report on how well they light the Iwasakis yet.

-- 
Jerry Baker
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