What is a Ballast?????

[Blue goldfish]

I got my Big Al's catalog and in it i saw a Corallife E-Z Ballast. It makes it sound like it's a thing where you can make your own hood and put this ballast in and put your flourescents in. Is this what it is??? Thanks in advance. I was just curious as to what it was.:D

[Cichlid Woman]

I want to know, too, because whatever it is, it's the reason I can't plug a compact fluorescent tube into my existing straight-fluorescent housing. Ugghhh.

-- Pat

[morleyz]

The ballast is the part of a flourescent light that supplies the bulb the proper amount of electricity for the specific bulb type. The connectors for different types of bulbs are done different to prevent you from using the wrong type of bulb with the wrong ballast.

Typically, if you were converting from one flourescent type to another, you would have to change the bulb, ballast, and end-cap(s) (connectors).

[NJ Devils Fan]

There are also 2 types, magnetic and eletronic. The magnetic ones make the light flicker and take a few seconds to go on, while an electronic ballast goes on immediatly and has a few other attributes that are better then a magnetic ballast.

HTH

[Jeremy S]

This (http://www.howstuffworks.com/fluorescent-lamp.htm/printable) article talks about how ballasts work. HTH

[superjohnny]

Simple answer: It's what the light bulbs plug into.

[slipknottin]

those are endcaps or sockets :D

all bulbs need ballasts except for incandescent and halogen bulbs.

There are actually numerous types of ballasts besides just electronic and magnetic.

[superjohnny]

Ok, how's this....

Light bulb plugs into end caps --> End caps are wired to ballast which controls electricity to lights. Closer? (seriously, I'm just learning all this ;))

[slipknottin]

there you go :D

some bulbs (like those screw-in compact fluorescent bulbs) have the ballast built into the base of the bulb.

[Blue goldfish]

Thanks for all the replies. I think i know what a ballast is now. Forums are a real big help when you have questions on something.:D

[superjohnny]

Originally posted by Blue goldfish
Thanks for all the replies. I think i know what a ballast is now. Forums are a real big help when you have questions on something.:D

Forums are invaluable indeed. :)