Flickering of fluorescent lights - automated testing system

• Main Author: Lee, Jen Chieh.
• Other Authors: Choi San Shing
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/17919
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In modern and high-technology society, power quality has been a major concern. In the past, incandescent lamps are thought to be more susceptible to harmonics and hence fluorescent lamps slowly took over from the incandescent lamps. The fluorescent lamps were supposed to be more tolerant to harmonics and energy saving. Recent researches have shown that fluorescent lamps are also prone to light flickering problem when the voltage supply is distorted with inter-harmonics. This was proven by the work of previous final year students. However, the testing process was done manually which is laborious and time consuming. Therefore, there is a need to come out with an automated testing system to carry out the testing so as to save time and manpower. The testing system will be used to test the incandescent, lamp as well as the fluorescent lamp with both electronic and magnetic ballast. The software program for the automated testing system was designed by the previous students using LabView. The software program makes use of its data acquisition function to make the testing process easier and faster. However, the program has a major technical problem which prevents the students from testing the fluorescent lamp with magnetic ballast. This report describes how the author addresses and tackles the problem by making changes to one part of the program. After solving the problem, the author went on to test the fluorescent lamp with magnetic ballast. Finally, an analysis was done with the data obtained and compared with that from the electronic ballast to complete the objectives of the project.