Building a voltage regulator for 220 VAC

[boatsman]

Does anyone have any experience in building a voltage regulator for 220 VAC and with a capacity of 500 Watts, or possibly 1 KW? I am using two sets of 4 x 40 Watt fluorescent lamps via a fluorescent lamp dimmer to illuminate newspapers that are being microfilmed. The trouble being that every time an airconditioner starts or stops the current going to the lamps varies. Is there any way of building an electronic dimmer for the fluorescents with a built-in regulator so that once the current reading on the multimeter is set it will be stabilised whatever else is running on the same circuit? The fluorescent dimmer I'm using at present was built about twenty years ago. Would be grateful for any advice or practical circuits.

 

[mvs sarma]

For the type of application described , the best approach appears to be, Power factor corrected Florescent tube drivers like IR2151 or it later entrants from I R, perhaps with dimming possibility. No point in trying to stabilize the voltage at 230V50Hz level.

If still stabilization is needed at this point, CVT is an appropriate technique at 1KVA loads.

 

[stevez]

If I go to Home Depot here in the US I can purchase an electronic ballast that is labelled, as I recall 100 to 277 vac input - for various lamp sizes and quantities. I asked one of the EE's here in the office if one of these was employed in a situation like yours, if it would adjust for the varying voltage and he said that it probably would. I am not the expert on this - just proposing that it might be a solution - though it's not what you requested.

 

[Hero999]

Why does it need to be rated to 1kW if the tubes are only 320W?

An electronic ballast is probably the best option, since the better quality ballasts actually regulate the tube current.