Electrical ballast
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An electrical ballast is a device placed in series with a load to limit the amount of current in an electrical circuit.
An American electronic instant start ballast for powering a variety of American T8 fluorescent lamps.
Variety of ballasts for fluorescent and other discharge lamps
A lamp starter, required with some inductor type ballasts. It connects the two ends of the lamp to preheat them for one second before lighting.
Ballast board for the ultra-high-performance lamp in a DLP projector (bottom right, outlined in red)
Compact fluorescent lamp
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A compact fluorescent lamp, also called compact fluorescent light, energy-saving light and compact fluorescent tube, is a fluorescent lamp designed to replace an incandescent light bulb; some types fi
Electrical ballast
…simple as a resistor, inductor, or capacitor (or a combination of these) wired in series with the lamp; or as complex as the electronic ballasts used in compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). An electrical ballast is a device that limits the current through an electrical load. These are most often used when a load (such as an arc…
The tubular-form CFL is one of the most popular types in Europe.
CFLs of varying power: 105W, 36W and 11W
Philips SL*18, an early CFL
A helical integrated CFL, one of the most popular designs in North America since 1995, when a Chinese firm marketed the first successful design