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Failure Of Integral Ballast Electronics

Failure Of Integral Ballast Electronics This failure method only applies to compact fluorescent bulbs that have an integral electrical ballast.

The failure of this particular part follows a somewhat random process like the standard failure profile of any electronic device.

If the application is operating in high humidity conditions, this may well significantly shorten the lifespan of the ballast.

There will be a small peak or early failure initially, which will be followed by a drop then a steady increase in failures over the life of the lamp.

One of the main determining factor for the life of electronics is the operating temperature; it will typically half the life for each 10C rise in temperature.

If you see a quoted average life of a fluorescent lamp, then this will probably represent the life at an ambient temperature of 25C and obviously the temperature will vary from country to country.

The average life of the electronics in a lamp will usually be higher than this, which means it is unlikely that the electronics will fail before the lamp does.

In some extreme conditions, where the operating temperature of the lamp is higher than this, failure of the electronics may actually become the predominant factor in the failure of the tube.

An example of this would be when using a compact fluorescent tube base-up, say in a ceiling mounted light fixture, where the heat from the lamp itself will increase the operating temperature of the electronics above it, particularly with higher power rated lamps.

In the case of integral electronic ballasts, as used in compact fluorescent bulbs, if the emission mix runs out they don’t have to work again, so they sometimes deliberately burn out some component to permanently cease operation.