Design considerations for economical electronic ballasts

Electronic ballasts generating high frequency supply are being widely used for fluorescent lighting applications to reduce the power consumption of the circuit, improve lamp efficacy, eliminate flicker and provide instant start. Lighting represents quite a substantial amount of energy consumed and thus the technology of electronic ballasts is receiving wide acceptance. However, in order to compete with the lower cost conventional ballast system, the demand is more for economical designs of the electronic ballasts, without significant sacrifice to the benefits obtainable, nor to the system reliability. This paper presents the design considerations for electronic ballasts such that economical designs take these into account. Typical circuit configurations suitable for economical designs are discussed