suzukir122
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I remember seeing this video many years ago. Inside of what looks to be an abandoned factory, person flips on a switch, all fluorescent fixtures start up but one explodes violently. What caused this? I'm assuming a shorted ballast? From the start up, those look to be possible HO fixtures but I honestly have no clue with how low the video quality is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIRgO5n26YA |
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« Last Edit: August 07, 2024, 01:00:30 PM by suzukir122 »
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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RRK
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Roman
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| May be some short circuit that causes full line voltage to be applied across a filament.
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LightsAreBright27
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Cheap LED Assassin
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| If it is a two lamp ballast, I don't think it failed, or atleast completely. The lamp next to the exploded one runs fine.
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Holder of the rare and sacred  F10T12/BL lamps here!
Also known as LAB27 for short.
One of the only Indian members here!
245v 50Hz
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suzukir122
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@LightsAreBright27, these are definitely two lamp... they look to be possible HO Rapid Start fixtures. The video quality is so bad that it is a bit tough to tell though, but the video quality of this video was a bit better back when I first discovered this video. Both lamps in that fixture crashed to the ground.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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LightsAreBright27
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@suzukir122 Ohh, OK! I had thought the exploded one fell from the half lit one (the one in front of the actually exploded one). So, definitely ballast issue.
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Holder of the rare and sacred F10T12/BL lamps here!
Also known as LAB27 for short.
One of the only Indian members here!
245v 50Hz
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suzukir122
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| Even though this kind of situation is very rare, this is the only thing about magnetic ballasts that scares the crap out of me. This has never
happened to me before, and hopefully it never does.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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LightsAreBright27
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| This could happen very commonly, but not as violent and only on suspicious looking ballasts. For me, I used an almost eol tube to test a rusty ballast, the ends glowed bright purple and both the tube and the ballast died.
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Holder of the rare and sacred F10T12/BL lamps here!
Also known as LAB27 for short.
One of the only Indian members here!
245v 50Hz
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108CAM
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Diehard MV, HPS, SOX & Preheat Fluorescent Fanatic
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| I've got a bunch of almost EOL tubes that I've kept for testing ballasts so I don't lose any of my rare tubes to a ballast failure. I also have a safety box that I made using a breaker panel that I salvaged from a house that was demolished
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Fluro starter pings combined with a 50hz ballast hum and blinking tubes is music to my ears.
Rest in Peace Electronic Lamp Manufacturers of Australia
1925-2002
Bring back the AJF Zodiacs!
Total incidents since joining LG: 18
Lamps accidently broken or smashed: 15
Ballast explosions/burnouts: 3
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James
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| Although I have never come across this in Western countries, during the period that Sylvania was owned by Havells of India we learned that it is not such an uncommon situation over there (not only for FL but also other HID lamps). It seems there are several ballast makers that use extreme low quality shellac varnish for the windings, which degrades over time due to atmospheric conditions as well as the voltage spikes from a starter. The ballast inductance gradually decreases over time as adjacent windings become short-circuited, and in the end the ballast is little more than a solid copper block! The resulting increase in arc current will eventually reach the point that the lamp is destroyed.
Incidentally we do intentionally sometimes blow up fluorescent tubes as part of the testing of new fixtures intended for LED T8 retrofit tubes. Since those do not actually require a ballast and have become extremely cheap, it is often cheaper to make a modern LED fixture based on an old fluorescent structure, with 230V mains delivered direct to one or both lampholders. Such fixtures also have to be safe in case the customer accidentally replaces a failed LED tube with an old-fashioned fluorescent tube. When 230V mains is applied directly across one or both cathodes, it instantly vaporises and a heavy arc can form, which obliterates the tube. The more professional fixture manufacturers therefore include a fast-acting fuse in the luminaire, which has to fail before any dangerous consequences might result in such situations.
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LightsAreBright27
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| That happens very commonly here. As James said, cheap ballasts short out the windings, destroying the tube.
Here, many open component fixtures (ballast is mounted on outside) use special ballasts with their own covers, but many electricians use bare, non protected ballasts as there was no spare. These then rust out and short due to no maintenance.
Also since many illiterate people can't read the warning sticker on direct 230v led tube fixtures, they install normal fluorescent tubes and they explode.
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Holder of the rare and sacred F10T12/BL lamps here!
Also known as LAB27 for short.
One of the only Indian members here!
245v 50Hz
|
