Energetic aspects of the HID ballast used in the outdoor lighting

Due to their lumen per watt efficiency, the HID lamps are wide used in the outdoor applications, as well in indoor industrial or commercial ones. The ballasts necessary for their normal operation could be magnetic or electronic and in the last decade we assist to a long debate on which is a better option. In the first part the paper focus on the main ballast type and characteristics, comparing and discussing the advantages and drawbacks. Secondly, a theoretical approach of the current harmonic regime in the lamps circuits is reviewed and, finally, an experimental validation was performed with four different ballasts and different lamp types.