Sos For Crossy Re: Thai Electric Service

[pmcd8243]

Thank you in advance. I'm at my wife's parent's house in Pak Chong. The ceiling lights in one room were not working and I suspected a dodgy switch. I went to home pro and got a replacement and all worked well except in the off position one of the lights continued to flicker and have a small amount of light coming from it. These are the circular florescent lights lights found all over Thailand. I do not know about these type of fixtures.. I took off the cover and saw a small ?Ballast? in addition to the circular tube bulb. I don't know if this run on after the switch is off is a failing bulb, bad ballast or wiring problem. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for your many years of valuable input in this forum for hacks like me.

P

[Tywais]

This is because the switch is wired to disconnect neutral and should be wired to disconnect line (hot) side to the ballast. Since the hot side is always connected to the ballast, small leakage to air causes the light to glow or flash.

[Crossy]

Tywais got there first, invariably glowing tubes is a switched neutral.

The proper way to fix it is to trace the wiring and sort out the crossed connection, if that proves impossible you MAY see an improvement if you simply swap the connections at the fitting.

As a last resort installing an electronic ballast will almost certainly solve the glow, but there have been a number of reports that the cheap Chinese imports are unreliable given Thailand's wonderfully smooth power.

[Tywais]

As a last resort installing an electronic ballast will almost certainly solve the glow, but there have been a number of reports that the cheap Chinese imports are unreliable given Thailand's wonderfully smooth power.

Terribly unreliable. We installed electronic ballasts throughout our lab. The majority have failed due to various issues, power being one of them and have been replacing failed ones with conventional ballasts. A negative cost savings using electronic for us.

[electau]

Switching on the neutral conductor is potentially hazardous as the lampholder is still energised when the switch is off. This may not be the only fitting in your installation that is switched on the neutral.

As far as electronic ballasts are concerned one should check the voltage rating. Most manufactured to IEC standards will operate between 190V and 230V/240V or may be marked

190V to 230V max. some non compliant ballasts are rated at just 220V.

On would doubt that the system voltage is causing the problem of failure, more likely it is the quality of the ballast.

[lopburi3]

In defense of electronic have had Panasonic or Lampton T-5 all-in-one units in Kitchen for at least a year and on many hours a day and they not only continue to have good brightness and operate down to transformer phase loss 160 volts range without issue. Instant and silent light. Would not buy a normal florescent again.

[Pib]

Pretty much ditto...I've got around 15 electronic ballasts installed in my Bangkok home....they have been installed around 3 years....I've never had a failure...just lights that turn on instantly versus making you want to look down at the floor as the light flickers for a few seconds while staring up.

All of my electronic ballasts are made my Lamptan. Specifially the Lampton electronic ballast used is the 32W T9 ballast shown at this Lamptan Link.