Hello from New Zealand,

I bought an eballast (ex LL) off e-bay thinking it was multi-tap but it is 120v only. NZ has 240v. Anyone know how to convert this ballast to 240v?

Cheers

Its a transformer and voltage ratio is directly proportional to turns (of wire) ratio, so to get the right ratio you would need to remove half the turns (of wire) on the primary, but that now means twice the current which would overheat and damage the wire so it probbaly won't work. Sorry

Here you go one of these will work for you.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?f...own+transformer

RR

get a 240 to 120 step down transformer,, they are available

Here you go one of these will work for you.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?f...own+transformer

RR

Thanks dude. I was exploring this, but given the extreme blast of initial electricity which starts the 400w bulb I supposed it would need to be about 2Kva. In NZ these are over $700. They are cheap in USA but the transport costs about $100US! Definitely cheaper to start all over again... unless someone has a 240v one and wants to swap, or a multitap - swap and cash difference?

Thanks for the explanation, but I thought electronic ballasts use a microprocessor to control things instead of core and coil. That's why they are so light in comparison to magnetic ballasts and they can even run both High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide bulbs.

I'm no electronics tecnician, but wouldn't it work to just go in your outlet and remove/cap off one of the positive wires?

220 is nothing more than 2 110 wires with a common ground, right? So unhook one of the polsitives and you have 110.

Most countries use 220-240 volts and don't have 120 volts available at all.
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm

ummmmm what happened to a step down xformer,,,, to try otherwise is not wise.....

Yes that's a good point. The multitap ballasts seem to be hardly any more expensive than single ones. I wonder how they work?