Practical Evaluation of Dimming Control Methods for Electronic Ballasts

The authors compare and evaluate 1) the traditional frequency-control dimming method and 2) a recently-patented voltage-control dimming method in electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps. The power factor, energy efficiency, electronic loss, efficacy (lumen/W), and crest factor of 2times36W electronic ballasts based on these two dimming methods are recorded and compared over a wide dimming range. It is found that the voltage dimming control approach is much better than the frequency control method in most of the compared aspects as the lamp is dimmed. In particular, voltage dimming approach has much higher energy efficiency and lumen per watt than the frequency control one. Unlike the frequency dimming method, voltage dimming control has a distinctive feature in that its electronic loss decreases with decreasing lamp power

[1]  Marian K. Kazimierczuk,et al.  Electronic ballast for fluorescent lamps , 1993 .

[2]  F.C. Lee,et al.  Design considerations for high-voltage high-power full-bridge zero-voltage-switched PWM converter , 1990, Fifth Annual Proceedings on Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition.

[3]  Bor-Ren Lin,et al.  High power factor of metal halide lamp with dimming control , 1999, ISCAS'99. Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems VLSI (Cat. No.99CH36349).

[4]  W. R. Alling.  Important design parameters for solid-state ballasts , 1989 .

[5]  O. Morse,et al.  Performance of electronic ballast and controls with 34 and 40 watt F40 fluorescent lamps , 1988, Conference Record of the 1988 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[6]  F. Raiser.  Problems with lamp current control using a PWM signal , 2001, Conference Record of the 2001 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. 36th IAS Annual Meeting (Cat. No.01CH37248).

[7]  E.C. Nho,et al.  High frequency resonant inverter for group dimming control of fluorescent lamp lighting systems , 1989, 15th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.