ballast problem??

[umie]

hi all
hope someone can help me,,today when i went to plug my light in, i touched the two prongs on the plug and received a tingling sensation in my finger,,the light had been off for twelve hours. Ididn't know if the ballast keeps some power in it when switched off.
I'm in the UKjust so you all know..
thanx for looking
SI

[rodekyll]

Sounds like that ballast has a capacitor or condensor (same thing really) to hold a bit of charge with the power off. I'm not gonna disassemble mine to verify that, but a capacitor would be the usual source of a tingle (or jolt, if it's big enough) with the power disconnected.

We used to leave charged capacitors laying around the parts counter with tags reading "do not touch" as a joke. Some kid would pick one up and get bit. The rest of us would laugh our asses off. Those things can hold a charge for days . . .

[turtle420]

Sounds like that ballast has a capacitor or condensor (same thing really) to hold a bit of charge with the power off. I'm not gonna disassemble mine to verify that, but a capacitor would be the usual source of a tingle (or jolt, if it's big enough) with the power disconnected.

We used to leave charged capacitors laying around the parts counter with tags reading "do not touch" as a joke. Some kid would pick one up and get bit. The rest of us would laugh our asses off. Those things can hold a charge for days . . .
AHAHAHHAAA!!!!

Hahaqhhaaaaa!!! LOL !!!!

That just brought me back to when I was 15, and worked in a computer company... LOL!!!! The engineers did the same thing... they would watch closely, like in a Discovery-channel documentary, to see if I would pick-up one of those... LOL !!!

I learned after the 1st two...