Improvements in design of local fluorescent electronics ballasts in compliance with the related local and international standards

The study is undertaken to improve the design of existing locally manufactured electronic ballasts. The study indicated that many of these commercial electronic ballasts do not have or have either partially or minimum compliance requirements to the related local and international standards, namely MS EEC 928, MS IEC 929 and EMC requirements as required by SIRIM Berhad. From the study made on the 19 samples collected from nine different local ballast manufacturers, only seven manufacturers have conducted the tests on MS EEC 928 and MS EEC 929 and only two manufacturers have conducted the complete list of all tests. This is crucial because electronic ballasts are listed as one of the electrical controlled items by the Energy Commission (formerly known as Department of Electricity and Gas Supply of Malaysia (DEGSM)). The advantages and disadvantages of electronic ballasts, their operation and performance characteristics and problems encountered during their normal operations, for instance, surges, starting current, power factor, watt-loss, ambient temperature and environmental effects, lamp/ballast premature failures, harmonics and electromagnetic (EM) disturbances, efficiency and dimming are also discussed in the study. Various samples of electronic ballast were collected and tested for compliance based on the requirements and it is found that many samples failed the tests on total harmonic distortion (THD) that exceeded the 25% limit. From the test data collected on the study, analysis on the operation, performance, design and construction of the typical electronic ballast were utilised in the construction of the improved version of electronic ballast prototypes. At the end of the study, data collected from the tests conducted were tabulated for overall discussion and comparison in order to identify whether the tested samples comply fully to the requirements of the related standards or not. A conclusion on the study was later made. Further research and recommendations were suggested based on the new design approach, topologies and techniques on electronic ballasts construction with reference to research conducted by various electronic ballast designers.