Burning Fluorescent Tubes

Are the tubes rated for 415V operation?

Bill, The ballast is actually a step up Xformer. 120vac input (USA) 14-16kv out. But I think you are right about where the problem is.

There is few point that you need to checked.

1) Check what is your single phase voltage.? Since you are using 415V, 50Hz. then I suppose that your single phase should be 240Vac.

2) Check and conform if it is the 2ft fluorescent lamp that give you the problem.

3) What about other lamps. Does other type of lamp give you the same problem?

4) Check the quality of these fluorescent lamp. It may be the quality not good.

5) Finally, you have to check your neutral point and your earthing point and make sure that are in good condition.

Hii

My Chinese lights pack-up fast & we keep replacing them!!

Read about this forum! Are You Upset With Cheap Chinese Junk?

Stop buying Chinese crap.

Warning: I don't know anything about this sort of thing, just thinking aloud really.

If the problem only started when they did major electrical work, I'd guess that when they did some re-wiring they removed some mains filters.

Kenyan mains is notorious for spikes that's why you have to buy a mains filter when you buy a new fridge.

You could try monitoring the mains quality, or, just try mains filters in a statistically large enough area to make a decision.

Are you using conventional chokes (ballasts) which are step up transformers?

I have noticed by switching to electronic ballasts (even Chinese ones) virtually eliminated 90% our fluorescent lamp failure problems. Of course you will have great power savings too as an added advantage.

Using a e-ballast also eliminates use of a starter, that is 50% of the problem solved!

"i,ve just nabbed a contract with one of the tea company in our country..."

Tell them they need a another phosphor besides tea.

Sorry, couldn't help myself!

Gentlemen,

The purpose of a ballast is to provide the correct lamp current thereby providing the right power and voltage as well. Some ballasts step down the incoming voltage while others step it up. It all depends on the product you intend to operate. Always match the lamp type to the ballast type or the lamps will not operate very long.

Besides mis-match problems there is another fundamental mistake often made that causes early failure. That is proper seating in the socket, a.k.a. proper connection. This is most often indicated by early end darkening on one or both ends of the lamp.

Of all the different types of ballasts, there are really only two fundamental types upon which every thing else is derived. They can be classified as one of two types. The first type provides energy to the coil (which acts as the electrode interface between metallic and gaseous conduction) and the second type that does not.

The second type is considered to be an "instant start" ballast which provides enough output voltage to light a broom stick. Of course, once the lamp lights the output voltage of the ballast quickly drops as current rises. This happens because of the physical characterise of the fluorescent lamp which has several megaohms of impedance before it starts and drops rapidly as it begins to conduct current. The lamp impedance in normal operation is from 50 ohms to a few hundred ohms depending on the arc length and application. That is to say that it can be more or less than the range above, in special applications.

The first type of ballast is available in many forms including "pre-heat", "rapid start", and others. The output voltage of these ballasts is generally not enough to start the lamp without exciting the emitter (the magic dust on the coil) causing electrons to start ionizing the gas enough to overcome the megaohms of impedance between coils. As the gas begins to ionize, the applied voltage keeps pushing enough to stabilize a steady flow of current, thereby starting the lamp.

Incidently, there are three major manufactures of fluorescent lamps. They are GE, Sylvania, and Philips. They all produce the very same products under other brand names for a number of OEM's. In China, there are some 4000 manufacturers of lamp products. Producing a fluorescent lamp is fairly easy. Producing a high quality fluorescent lamp is a little bit more difficult.

Having created a rather large flowchart (at one time in my past) of the things that can go wrong during production of fluorescent lamps, I can assure you that bad products will occasionally slip past the established methods of detection. But more often than not, the problem is user application because most people will not take the time to see that they are properly connected to the correct ballast.

Well, I hope that was not more than you wanted to know. Old habits die hard.

Just a sneaking suspicion:

Are those ballasts designed for 50 Hz.??