Sceadwian
Banned
How safe/effective is a basic magnetic ballast as far as current limiting goes? I pulled one out of a fish tank light and was wondering if I could use it for current limiting of a heating element that has a very low DC resistance (couple of ohms). What kind of resistance are they designed to work with? I know a mercury bulb is very low impedance when it's conducting after it ionizes but exactly how much? The ballast I have is rated for a single T8/T12 bulb at 320ma, the coils DC resistance is 27 ohms, I don't know it's inductance but I've worked out it should have an inductance in the area of 250mH if it's rated current is short circuit current (120V line), otherwise it's inductance going to be different depending on the resistance it's rated current is based on. Can anyone shed some light on these things for me? I would like to use it after a fuse for limiting total power to very low impedance loads.
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