Energia i gospodarka · 24/11/2010

Energy Conservation Program: Test Procedures for Fluorescent Lamp Ballasts

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposes to revise its test procedures for fluorescent lamp ballasts established under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The proposed test method would eliminate the use of photometric measurements in favor of purely electrical measurements with the goal of reducing measurement variation. Furthermore, this proposed test procedure would measure a new metric, ballast luminous efficiency (BLE), which more directly assesses the electrical losses in a ballast compared to the existing ballast efficacy factor (BEF) metric. Rather than testing a ballast with a resistive load as proposed in the March 24, 2010 notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), the BLE test procedure would measure the performance of a ballast while operating a fluorescent lamp.