Don't throw away old HID ballasts. - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

220/221 · 04-03-2011, 11:52 PM

I cleaned up a portion of the warehouse to get some lunch money Friday. I estimated 1400 pounds (14 Milk crates, half full @ about 100# each).

I thought the price was 10 cents a pound and I was thinking it wasn't worth the effort. Turns out it was 1600+ pounds @ 30+ cents and I walked out with 530 bones! I cut all the lead wires off and got another $30. I'm not sure that was a productive use of time but.....If you have a place for them, old ballasts = lunch money.

It flattened out my ride a bit. It felt like I was pulling a trencher/trackhoe.

HARRY304E · 04-03-2011, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 220/221

I cleaned up a portion of the warehouse to get some lunch money Friday. I estimated 1400 pounds (14 Milk crates, half full @ about 100# each).

I thought the price was 10 cents a pound and I was thinking it wasn't worth the effort. Turns out it was 1600+ pounds @ 30+ cents and I walked out with 530 bones! I cut all the lead wires off and got another $30. I'm not sure that was a productive use of time but.....If you have a place for them, old ballasts = lunch money.

It flattened out my ride a bit. It felt like I was pulling a trencher/trackhoe.

You can good good good money for that suff right now...

Nice truck..

erics37 · 04-03-2011, 11:59 PM

Back when I was a 2nd term apprentice, we did a service upgrade on a school about an hour north of here. The old service had 3 parallel runs of.... well I forgot what conductor size they were.... but all in all, between the service conductors and the various feeders we also replaced, we had nearly a ton of copper wire.

And the only way to get it back was in the bed of my Toyota pickup.

My poor rig was bouncing on the front wheels all the way home. We had a wire-stripping party that weekend though in my driveway. I don't recall how much it all weighed without the insulation, but we split the proceeds several ways and get around $500 each.

kaboler · 04-04-2011, 12:40 AM

Those look like transformers. I can't remember what HID fixtures are made up of, but it's just a transformer and a capacitor? I dunno. But those look like boxes of transformers to me.

erics37 · 04-04-2011, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaboler

Those look like transformers. I can't remember what HID fixtures are made up of, but it's just a transformer and a capacitor? I dunno. But those look like boxes of transformers to me.

An HID ballast is usually just a transformer and/or a capacitor and/or an ignitor. Depends on the type of lamp.

thegoldenboy · 04-04-2011, 01:03 AM

Did a lighting retrofit in a parking lot this past summer, HID to Induction lighting. Pretty large complex, quite a few ballasts removed. Everyone got a fair share.