Have you ever heard a light bulb buzz?
Technically, no. The buzzing you hear is coming from the ballast, not the bulb itself.
Nerdy lighting technicalities, I know. Ballasts, light bulbs – it's all the same, isn't it?
Practical advice on commercial lighting from LED retrofits to lighting design.
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Topics: Lighting 101, Ballast, Fluorescent light
This article has been updated with new information and new products. It was originally published in 2017.
If you still have T12s in your building and they run on magnetic ballasts, you may soon face a problem: what do you do when your ballasts die?
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Topics: LED, Parking Garage Lighting, T12, Ballast, Fluorescent light, Commercial office lighting
Unlike fluorescents, some linear LEDs do not need a ballast to power up and produce light. So, a lot of our customers have been asking us about the safety of just bypassing the ballast and direct-wiring their LED tubes.
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Topics: Ballast, LED retrofit, Commercial office lighting
Although LED lighting is the most popular and one of the most efficient lighting options right now, our team still faces a lot of questions on fluorescent lighting. Aletheia Cyr, our training and development specialist, helps walk through some of the most common questions we receive on fluorescent lighting.
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Topics: LED, Ballast, Fluorescent light, Light bulb part numbers, CFL
If you outfit your buildings with fluorescent, HID, or plug-and-play linear LED lighting, you depend on a device called a ballast.
When the right ballasts are used, the end result can mean a cost-effective lighting solution that is energy efficient and gives you advanced controls over the amount of light produced in your space. Let’s dig a little deeper.
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Topics: Lighting 101, FAQs, Ballast, Fluorescent light
We’ve written separately on the blog about energy savings calculations and ballast factors with ballast-dependent lighting, but how do these two topics come together? This can be a really tricky topic in lighting if you’re new to ballast factors.
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Topics: LED, Energy efficiency, Energy savings, Ballast, Fluorescent light
If you're new to commercial lighting, the concept of a ballast can be an odd one. When you're used to just screwing light bulbs into sockets and flipping switches, the transition to ballast-dependent lighting technology can be frustrating.
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Topics: Lighting 101, Ballast
Lighting products are chock full of specifications. Some of them have a nuanced impact on the overall performance of the lighting system, and some can make a significant impact on light levels, color, or energy consumption. Ballast factor is one of those often overlooked or misunderstood specs that can make a big difference in your linear fluorescent lighting system.
So what is a ballast factor?
Ballast factor is calculated by dividing the lumen output of a lamp-ballast combination by the lumen output of the same lamp(s) on a reference ballast. A ballast factor of <1 means that your fluorescent system will produce less light (lumens) than the reference ballast and a factor of >1 means it will produce more light.
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Topics: Energy efficiency, Ballast, Fluorescent light
