by DBreg2007
Choosing the Right Ballast Ensures Efficiency and Safety
While most people have purchased lamps, bulbs, and other forms of lighting equipment over the years, few might realize the importance of safety and efficiency that really goes into those choices. Although nearly all regular household bulbs are fairly standard in what they do and where you should place them, there are some lighting sources that contain high voltages and strong electrical currents that you should be very cautious about. For that reason, understanding what HID ballast and MH ballast can do in terms of functioning is very important.
HID ballast and MH ballast helps limit the amount of current that can be found within an electrical current. Therefore, it is an extremely important device to have. Using an electrical load, ballasts are able to stabilize the current and are generally utilized when circuit has a negative resistance to the supply. If this was not used then the power supply might fail. In order to keep this from happening, ballasts offset this with a positive resistance so that the current goes down to the right level that it should be at. In effect, it offers stabilization.
Some ballasts are pretty simply and might just be resistors that you can find in LED lights or neon lamps, such as the ones that you have in your home. On the other hand, some ballasts are very complicated and like the ones that are sometimes used in fluorescent lamps. These use HID ballast. These can often be controlled by remote or even computerized.
So how does a MH ballast work? An MH light uses a sodium bulb that is high-pressured as well as a metal halide bulb (MH) that has either one integrated MH ballast or two different ones that have been specially assembled. They implement two small lights instead of one big one and as a result give off an interesting blend of light source. Some people use these types of lights for growing vegetables and propagating them.
On the other hand, a high-intensity discharge lamp, or HID, uses an electrical arc that can be filled with metal salts and gas. The salts create plasma which makes the light bright while still giving it a low amount of power. These types of lamps generally have a strong efficacy because most of their radiation comes from light and not heat. So, HID ballast is also very important.
A lot of places that need great quantities of lights such as warehouses, stadiums, gymnasiums, and movie theaters use these types of lights. You can also find them in headlights and even in flashlights.
HID ballast, unlike MH ballast, is needed on a fluorescent light in order to keep their arcs going as well as to start them. The starting method differs from one type to the other, but some use an electrode while others use high voltage pulses.
Not only do ballasts ensure that the lights are working efficiently and at their highest potential, but they also ensure that they are working in the safest manner possible. When you are working with high-powered light sources, it is very important to err on the side of caution. Of course, there is also economy to consider, too. You want to get as much for your money as you can.