Florescent Light Ballast

[Rege-PA]

Is there anything in florescent light ballasts? They are extremely heavy for there size.

 

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[GeorgiaPossum]

I opened one up and it was full of a rubbery plastic. I mean -full-. If you were to pick it away, you would find a transformer and other basic electronics. But not enough to justify the trouble, in my mind.

GeorgiaPossum

 

[2muchstuff]

A transformer, wire and tar. I throw them in with motor breakage.

 

[bluecat]

If the ballasts are larger ones (18-24 inch) it may be worth your time to open them up and burn off the tar and resin to get the copper out of the transformers in the ballast. With copper over $3 per lb it is woth it. Just keep in mind that some of them have aluminum windings instead of copper. If you only have a couple I probably wouldn't bother though.

 

[Rege-PA]

Thanks for the info...I have enough of them to try a burn. If it works out I`ll cook all of them.

 

[billjustbill]

A local smaller school district here in Texas took out all their old ballast when the district got a grant for saving energy. There were enough old style ballasts to fill a 55 gallon barrel.

When it came time to have the barrel of old ballast hauled away, the school district found that the filled barrel was now labeled as "Toxic Waste" and would have to be taken to a specific toxic waste dump near Houston, Tx. It cost the district over $800 to have the barrel of ballast hauled away....

Nowadays, if a ballast goes bad during class time with children, they are to be removed from the room ASAP. Please be careful with opening or burning the ballast contents!!!

Bill

 

[TJ2662]

A local smaller school district here in Texas took out all their old ballast when the district got a grant for saving energy. There were enough old style ballasts to fill a 55 gallon barrel.

When it came time to have the barrel of old ballast hauled away, the school district found that the filled barrel was now labeled as "Toxic Waste" and would have to be taken to a specific toxic waste dump near Houston, Tx. It cost the district over $800 to have the barrel of ballast hauled away....

Nowadays, if a ballast goes bad during class time with children, they are to be removed from the room ASAP. Please be careful with opening or burning the ballast contents!!!

Bill

Geez, does this mean I have a potential future lawsuit against the public school systems where I attended class I'm sure some lawyers will get rich off this someday.......... sheeshhh... kinda reminds me of the huge glass recycling effort locally... well because it costs too much to recycle the glass, the city just throws it on the bottom of the landfill, good grief, why do ppl bother to seperate it??

 

[Urban Prospector]

Many older ballasts contain PCBs and are cancer causing (carcinogenic). Transformers to change high voltage do too. Don't take a risk with your future, sell ballasts as is. Hear in Cali no one wants them. It's hard to sell car batteries here too and only 7 cent a lb when you do.

My son was selling beer bottles for CRV of 5cent each totaling 15 cent a lb, 1.09 a lb is the weight price.Not to smart for a math major.