Path: utzoo!yunexus!ists!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!nikhefk!henkp
From: henkp@nikhefk.UUCP (Henk Peek)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Fluorescent light ballasts
Keywords: advance
Message-ID: <596@nikhefk.UUCP>
Date: 18 Nov 89 16:51:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: nikhefk.596
References: <22334@gryphon.COM> <4995@ae.sei.cmu.edu> <3504@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: henkp@nikhefk.UUCP (Henk Peek)
Organization: Nikhef-K, Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Lines: 14

In article <3504@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>In article <4995@ae.sei.cmu.edu>, rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito) writes:
-> In article <22334@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
-> =There are two kinds of ballasts: magnetic and elecronic. The
-> =former is by far the most common type, and is little more than
-> =a transformer.
>
>	The primary purpose of a ballast is for current limiting, and it
>therefore functions as a saturable inductor and not a transformer.
A ballast inductor operates always in the non sataurable mode.
When the iron saturates the inductance of the inductor goes very fast down
and the current goes up.

Henk Peek  Henkp@nikhef.nl