A Light Ballast is a Light Ballast they are all the Same ? Wrong . It almost caused a fire at one of my customers because the wrong ballast was used.

A Fluorescent Light ballast is a Light ballast wrong. and if you use the wrong one you can cause a fire .
Tke the below sample do you see a Difference ?

Well there is very slight but not knowing this difference can cause major issues.


A customer of mine was blowing out replacement ballasts a couple weeks after they where replacd and I found out he had a unique situation going on .

most Fluorescent lighting fixtures are rigged up for either 120 or 277 VAC

But in my customers case his warehouse lighting was being run at 230VAC  so a conventional ballast would not work.

the ballast on Left is  marked 120 VAC To 277 VAC  this means it can be used on 120,208,230 and 277 VAC 

The Ballast on right is marked 120-277  Normally this can only be used on 120 or 277 not 230 VAC

which was what was happening at my customers warehouse wrong voltage meant ballast burt up in short time usage.

But here is an even more interesting twist  take another close look at this ballast its marked 12-277VAC  OK cant use on 230VAC   wrong this one you can  you will also see a UV mark this means universal input so it can be used on 230VAC

Confused?  your not the only one .

The best way to be safe when replacing a ballast in a fixture is to replace with an exact match if unsure check with manufactuer.

Also remember there are ballasts on market which have a built in  rechargeable back up battery in them so light works during a power outage. So if you have to replace one of those it gets even more critical you get exact replacement and wore correctly.

Light Fixtures manufactured today are much more complicated than in days past repair them incorrectly you can injure yourself and or have a fire develop because the work is improper.

LED Fluorescent Replacement Lamps Present a New Danger to the uninformed when they attempt to change them with wrong lamp

Retrofitting existing Fluorescent Light fixtures with energy efficient LED Light Bulbs  is all the rage  right now in office and retail environments it just makes sense  lamps last up-to 10years and use half the energy and are much brighter than conventional fluorescent lamps.

But It comes with a new danger to those who do not pay attention to how these retrofits are done and fail to pay attention to warning labels which are suppose to be put on every fixture that has been retrofitted like the sticker below

The problem is with Direct drive LED Lamps  the ballast in the fixture is bypassed and 120VAC
is applied directly to the LED Lamps and if a conventional Fluorescent light bulb or tube is
put on 120 VAC it can explode sending shards of glass everywhere.This is why the above label must be placed on fixture ,but many times they are not applied

To make matters even more confusing some LED Lamps you do not bypass the ballast  so you can mix conventional fluorescent with LED  not recommended but it can be done. 

So you can see how confusing it is and how someone who is not familiar with the new LED retrofit Lamps could be badly injured. especially unqualifeied handy mean types.

LED retrofitting is defiantly the best way to go but beware .