Fluros, Ballasts, CD80s, oh my!

Charc

Well-Known Member
Okay to the best of my knowledge: I have two Strand CD80 Supervisor dimmer racks, with only the normal 2x2.4kW dimmer modules. I'm presuming there is a compatible special dimmer module for dimmable 8' fluro tube ballasts. Is this correct? I hope to crack open the dimmer room and scan down the rack, if everything looks the same I'll assume no special dimmer modules were installed. My assumption is based upon the fact that our maintenance dept installed these suckers, and just cut straight into three raceways for power.

My next question, how do non-dimmable fluro tubes deal with power distribution. It's unclear how, but somehow our current fluro sconce lights solely click on and off. I'm not sure if they are on a standard dimmer set to nondim, or if a special dimmer was installed, can nondim fluros play nice with your run of the mill CD80 dimmer?

Any things I should be looking for when I get a chance to check that guy out?
 
Okay to the best of my knowledge: I have two Strand CD80 Supervisor dimmer racks, with only the normal 2x2.4kW dimmer modules. I'm presuming there is a compatible special dimmer module for dimmable 8' fluro tube ballasts. Is this correct?

Possibly, but not necessarily. It all depends upon the ballast of the fixtures. If the ballast is a dimmable ballast, then you can dim the fixture, If it is not, then you won't really be able to dim them.

I hope to crack open the dimmer room and scan down the rack, if everything looks the same I'll assume no special dimmer modules were installed. My assumption is based upon the fact that our maintenance dept installed these suckers, and just cut straight into three raceways for power.


Your dimmer module, regardless of manufacturer, will, at first glance, typically look the same. There will probably be some labeling differences, but not much else on the face of it. I don't know that I understand what you mean by "just cut straight into three raceway's for power"

My next question, how do non-dimmable fluro tubes deal with power distribution. It's unclear how, but somehow our current fluro sconce lights solely click on and off. I'm not sure if they are on a standard dimmer set to nondim, or if a special dimmer was installed, can nondim fluros play nice with your run of the mill CD80 dimmer?
Any things I should be looking for when I get a chance to check that guy out?

In a flourescent fixture, the lamp type does not matter as much as the ballast that is on the fixture. Again, I am unclear as to what you are asking about power distribution here, but if the ballast is the right type, and the settings are correct on the dimmer module/rack, then yes, flouros can play nice with a standard run of the mill CD-80 dimmer.

I will be honest here, it is pretty obvious that you don't know what you are talking about here. I am not trying to discourage you from learning, but when playing with line voltage anything, you should know what you are doing before hand. I would really hate to see you damage your equipment, or worse, by just playing with this this stuff. I would rather you not mess with this stuff, but if you do please be very very careful.
 
If you are not qualified, DO NOT touch it. Electricity kills.

Hire a qualified professional, each and every time.
 
Haven't dealt with dimming ballasts since about 1970, but the ones I remember had two power inputs. The first was on all the time, and the second was fed from the dimmer. (Maybe things have changed.) These were in 2x40 fixtures. I remember the fixtures dimmed well down to about 10% and then would wink out. The problem was since tubes age at different rates, they would all wink out or start flickering at different points. (The house system had about 60 of these fixtures.) Really ugly to see! I would hope some progress has been made in the last 38 years!

This talk of taking away our incandescents has me thinking about second amendment rights! RRrrrr!
 
This is only one type of fluorescent ballast that is out there now. (three wire) See the CBwiki post I wrote on Fl. dimming for more info....
 
Sorry I missed that anyone had replied to my thread.

Well, though the issue was unrelated, the maintenance head did finally inform me of what he did, which is cool. The dimmable ballasts are on normal CD-80 dimmers, and he did infact change the profile (is that the term?).

Jmabray, as [another CB member] has pointed out, I do need to fill in the details on my posts. In this instance, I was just doing some background research so that I could determine if the appropriate installation steps had taken place. It does look like everything was done correctly though.

In reference to the distribution comment: instead of running any power for these new house-lights, they just stole circuits from raceways, which was one of the suspicions I had about this installation. I mean, there were perfectly good unused house-light circuits right-next-door, but no, I walk into them running flexible conduit out of circuits "60, 97, 120" What's also a shame is that they did not record the circuits correctly, because I know for a fact that 60 is on our 1st Electric, not one of the 100s-110s, the approximate limits of the house-right catwalk, where the house-light was installed.

Again, I am unclear as to what you are asking about power distribution here, but if the ballast is the right type, and the settings are correct on the dimmer module/rack, then yes, flouros can play nice with a standard run of the mill CD-80 dimmer.
I will be honest here, it is pretty obvious that you don't know what you are talking about here.
 

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