Lighting ballast.

[klov]

I have an artist's lightbox from the US and now need to use it in Europe for a while. Can anyone tell me an equivalent ballast to replace the ones in the unit?
The ballast data reads: 15 or 20 watt, 30 amp, 118 volt, 60 cycle / Robertson Transformer Co. model 753H. It is not a current product so I cannot see any information on their site.
The electrical current here is 240 volt and 50 cycles. The 4 ballasts need to fit in a relatively small space and each measure 1"x3/4"x4-1/2" or 25x30x11.7 cm. Regards...

[suemarkp]

Buying new ballasts is usually rather costly. Is this one box with 4 ballasts in it, or 4 separate units. I think your easiest option, if you have some knowledge of wiring and understand series -vs- parallel, would be to wire two of the ballasts in series so they can be connected to a 240V supply. The drawback is if one ballast opens, neither of the two in the pair will work. But ballasts rarely fail on the primary side.

The 50Hz -vs- 60Hz difference shouldn't be a major thing.

[klov]

Thank you for the quick reply.
It is one light box with 4 lamps and 4 ballasts.

[joed]

Are still in US or in Europe now. When you get to Europe go to a local supplier. Tell them how many lamps, what type and what wattage they are and they should be able to supply you with the proper ballast(s) for the local voltage and frequency.

You will not likely find the proper balast while in US. There would be no market for them and no one would keep anything like that in stock.

[Wgoodrich]

When in europe check on the price of a step up transformer that will take a 50 cycle 200 volt input with a 240 volt 60 cycle output. May have to live with 50 cycle stepped up to 240 volt US from 200 volt Eu. Be aware 200 volt input to 240 volt output will take a larger step up transformer rated for the amp used converted to the input voltage.

This is what we do with Eu tanning tables bought in our area but we step down the voltage to match us from Eu voltage. You will be doing the opposite.

Good Luck

Wg

[suemarkp]

Who in Europe is 200V -- aren't they all 240V with a grounded leg?

A 240V-120V transformer would also most likely work well since the lights are not using much wattage. The ballast nameplate value of 30 amps must be wrong -- guessing it is 0.3 amps, unless there are over 100 20W lamps on each ballast.

[Wgoodrich]

The sub beds we worked on were 200 volts without grounded legs. Neutrals are seldom used in Eu. 200 volts / 50 cycle. Both wires are hot wires with no neutral or grounded leg making 200 volt receptacles where we have 120 volt receptacles with a grounded leg.

Wg

[JeffInCO]

I installed 12 cheap "Commercial Electric" fluorescent fixtures in my barn ($8 per fixture), and almost immediately had problems with the ballasts. The fixtures had sat in the boxes for over a year, so I couldn't return them.

So, I started swapping out the ballasts with GE UltraMax electronic ballasts at a price of about $20/ea (from ebay). These are rated to work on any input voltage in the range 120 to 277, 50 or 60 Hz. This is a broad product line with support for 1 to 4 bulbs, various ballast factors, etc. I think they are T-8 only, though... There may be similar products that support T-12, T-8/T-12, T-5, etc.

The other reason I used them is that some have a very low start temperature rating: -22 F (this is important on those cold Colorado mornings!)

Jeff