RRK
Member
Offline
Gender: 
View
Posts
View Gallery
Roman
|
| What power level you are looking for? Even with rather moderate 150VA rating of the inverter you can easily run into quite extreme currents, like 15+ amps. BTW, PC power supply is not the best way to get high power at 12V, typically start to behave funky on unbalanced load when heavily loaded at 12V channel and zero current on others. There is a myriad of proper modular 12V bricks of necessary power out there for cheap. Go 24V way, though if you can get 24V inverter, this means easier life with half the current.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
NeXe Lights
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
|
| I have one last question. There are some ballasts that only run on 240v, but most European inverters convert 12v DC to 220v/230v 50hz but not 240v. Would this effect the ballast in any significant way?
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
LEDs made everything better and worse at the same time.
|
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
|
| If the ballast is a simple reactor ballast or leak transformer ballast, the lamp would probably be marginally underdriven, but within tolerable levels. In North America, some people often refer to 240V as “220V” and some people refer to 120V as “110V” as well.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
|
NeXe Lights
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
|
| OK. I'll have to do some testing with my multimeter to see what the actual output voltage is. And I have seen that some cars that have outlets on the say they are 110v or 115v instead of 120v. So maybe it is just the company of the inverter referring to 240v as 220v or 230v.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
LEDs made everything better and worse at the same time.
|
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
|
| I have also ran some 110V 60Hz HX ballasts and 110V 60Hz preheat fluorescent choke ballasts on 120V 60Hz supplies and they seem to somewhat overdrive their intended lamps.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
|
NeXe Lights
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
|
| OK, will underdriving a bulb be a problem if it's a small amount? Also, would having a modified sine wave inverter affect anything with a magnetic or electronic ballast? Only asking because they are so much cheaper.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
LEDs made everything better and worse at the same time.
|
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
|
| From my experience, I am fine underdriving lamps down to around 25% below their rated current at the most, but other collectors might disagree.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
|
NeXe Lights
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
|
| OK so the slight underdrive cause by running a 240v ballast at 230v or 220v shouldn't be a problem. But how bad would running a ballast on a modified sine wave be?
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
LEDs made everything better and worse at the same time.
|
WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
HID, LPS, and preheat fluorescents forever!!!!!!
|
| As far as I know, I have known that many collectors often say that modified sine wave inverters can damage magnetic ballasts due to the difference in waveform. Other collectors can explain further.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.
DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.
|
NeXe Lights
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
|
| OK so I definitely will use a perfect sine wave inverter as to not damage a ballast.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
LEDs made everything better and worse at the same time.
|
RRK
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
Roman
|
OK so the slight underdrive cause by running a 240v ballast at 230v or 220v shouldn't be a problem. But how bad would running a ballast on a modified sine wave be?
It is a gamble. May be marginally OK with lagging type chokes and leak transformers. Long current pause will be bad for some lamps. Results will be unpredictable when used with leading and resonant circuits. Don't dare if you don't have an oscilloscope on hand to verify what's going on. |
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
NeXe Lights
Member
Offline
Gender:
View
Posts
View Gallery
|
| Yeah I'm not gonna risk it. I will definitely use a perfect sine wave inverter.
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
LEDs made everything better and worse at the same time.
|
