Electronic Ballast

On the right, are some photos of our current fluorescent lamps that we have outside our Singapore HDB flats. This is the fluorescent lamp that was replaced during the Aug 2005 period. If I am not wrong, all the Singapore HDB flats had been changed with this same with electronic ballast lamp fittings. I could still remember it because I was working as a temperory staff with a lighting company. We were assembling these lamps in-house, preparing for the on-site installation. You can also watch the following video. The lightings were not flicking when captured on my camera. If you noticed carefully, there were no starter.

The new installation makes sense because it will significantly reduces HDB maintenence cost and work. Each HDB flat (12 storey) has about 100 lamps, and the whole town of flats. Imagine the kind of maintenence that has to be done. It make sense to install the electronic ballast, which is why commercial buildings/offices are usually installed with the electronics version. The strange thing was that most HDB home were still using the magnetic ballast. Perhaps the lower material cost was the reason behind most home funishing contractor's choice. I am quite bias against the general contractor; there were a number of incident that I had with them in my work. They had the mentality of using cheaper material at the expenses of their customer to gain more profit. Always seek alternative opinons when it comes to engineering solutions.

Althrough this lamp design looks very simple to most of us, it was one of the most efficient lamp design I had seen so far. I was quite sensitive to the reflector design during that time, because lightings design was part of my work in my previous job. I was working on a security imaging equipment.

The lamp itself has no cover, which was something good. The cover can block a significant amount of light; the attenuation could be as high as 50% or more; even if the cover is clear, see through. I like the reflector design for this HDB lamp. The reflector was one of the most efficient reflector that I ever seen for the fluorescent tube.

The reflector has a sharp bended on the center (which is block by the tube) and formed a curved shape down to both sides. This shape can deflect the backward direction light energy, back to the front. The reflector surface was coated with matt white paint, which is an excellent surface to disperse the lights evenly in all the direction. If you look at the photo with the lights on, you can hardly see the fluorescent tube itself. The reflector has done a good job.

When I first started designing the reflector, I had this myth that a reflector need to be a shining surface; I think most of us will think the same. This was what my company were doing. If you notice the old reflector design, they were made of stainless steel with mirror surface finishing; I could still see it on today's lamp too. This type of reflector will not be able to lit up your room as evenly and as bright as the one with a matt white surface. The result would be a room that seems not bright enough. Unless you want to focus the lighting source to a location, you should use a reflector with matt white surface. Those in the field of interior design/art/photography will understand it better. I actually got to learn about this through the internet. I was very shock and surprised when I first learned about it.

Reference:
Energy Audit of selected HDB residential blocks in Singapore Aug 2004.pdf

Updated as of Date: 25 Sep 2010