In addition to numerous benefits over magnetic ballasts, electronic ballasts can provide dimming control, which is crucial nowadays in the energy-saving lighting systems.
Study shows that more than fifty percent energy savings can be achieved with dimming systems.
Besides the energy savings, dimming systems increase company's productivity by means of providing employees with personal control of workspace lighting and reducing glare at computer workstations. Also the dimming system can provide flexibility and aesthetics such as changing the light levels for different activities, adding versatility to dining rooms, living rooms, home theaters, adapting the lighting in conference rooms, partitioning spaces for multiple purposes, dimming to create the perfect mood, and adding drama to your home, works of art and landscape. One big problem associated with the dimmable electronic ballast is the high cost. Self-oscillating drive is usually employed to reduce the control complexity and the cost. Disadvantageously, however, the operating of self-oscillating circuit is, by the nature of its operation, load dependent, and thus is hard to control and very sensitive to the variations of components.