streetlight98
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Mike McCann
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Ah I see. Here is my ballast. Well, I have two of them but I plan to keep the other one NOS unless I really need it for something.
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nicksfans
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Down with lamp bans!
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I like my lamps thick, my ballasts heavy, and my fixtures tough.
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themaritimegirl
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Florence
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Evidently, based on Mike's photo, The F30T8 is 0.38A, not 0.35A. Pardon my error.
With only a 50 mA variation, I wonder if the reduced current of an F30T8-compatible ballast would be noticeable at all. I own two 30/40 watt ballasts, an LPF F30T8-compatible unit which runs an F30T12 at about 0.36A, and an HPF unit which runs one at 0.43A. I'll rig one of my F30T12 lamps to both of them, snap pics of my room lit with both of them, and upload a comparison photo in the next few days.
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streetlight98
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Mike McCann
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Are you saying you think F30T12s and 34W F40T12s may run ok on these?
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nicksfans
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I do know that single-lamp NPF preheat ballasts are less sensitive to the type of lamp used. That being said, I've managed to trip the protection on mine trying to manually start an EOL F34. The ballast wasn't even that warm, so I was afraid I had killed it. Fortunately, it fired right up after I let it sit for a little while.
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« Last Edit: August 16, 2014, 10:37:27 PM by nicksfans »
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I like my lamps thick, my ballasts heavy, and my fixtures tough.
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streetlight98
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At one time i thought that 34W lamps were designed to work only on RS ballasts but I don't see how that would be possible and now i know they do work on preheat.
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themaritimegirl
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Florence
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Are you saying you think F30T12s and 34W F40T12s may run ok on these? Your ballast and Nick's ballast have not been designed to run either lamp, and will run hotter with them. Whether or not they run so hot as the ballast might be damaged is a gamble. You'll have to fire one up on it and see for yourself. I too have wondered if the 34 watt F40T12 is not meant to run on preheat. My Advance L-140F-TP is not rated for them, and I have found that they can occasionally be stubborn to start on one, especially with manual preheating (in which case you don't have an arc-suppression capacitor to help direct the inductive kick to the lamp).
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streetlight98
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Ah well for me it's not really worth finding out lol. I'll just stick to F40T12s. When in doubt, that's the best thing to do IMO. I'll see how hot it gets running a 40W tube and if it runs cool enough where I can hold my hand on it I'll consider tested a 34W lamp. Yeah 34W lamps seem to be stubborn on preheat ballasts. i tried it one time just to see if they'd light and they did but the starters took longer than they do for 40W tubes. They glowed at the ends and blinked several times and then they came on and the ballast seemed louder than normal. Could the lower arc voltage cause that? Those F30T12s use the same starters. I've never ran a F30 on preheat though so I don't know if they're blink-happy as well. I didn't run the 34W tubes long enough to test how hot the ballasts got though. I've also run 32W T8s on a preheater and RS too just to see how they light. On RS they flicker like CRAZY and finally they calm down but are very bright and seem "hyper" with some flashing and stuff. On preheat they flashed and blinked. One lamp finally came on but the other didn't. These are starters that start 40W tubes within a few seconds too. Of course I didn't run the T8s for more than a minute but what fun would lighting be if I didn't experiment a little? lol
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themaritimegirl
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Yep, the louder ballast would be due to the increased current, which in turn is due to the lower arc voltage. I want to get an F32T8 and see how it does on my ballast. xmaslightguy has a similar ballast and had great success with an F32T8 when he used specific starters. I emulated an F32T8 using an F17T8 and F15T8 in series, and lamp current was a perfect 0.26A. The beauty of an LPF ballast in some situations.
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streetlight98
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Mike McCann
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Please check out my newly-updated website! McCann Lighting Company is where my street light collection is displayed in detail.
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themaritimegirl
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Yeah, different border crossings have different attitudes. And you picked it up personally; not have it sent through the mail.
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« Last Edit: August 17, 2014, 10:41:50 PM by TheMaritimeMan »
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streetlight98
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I'm actually bringing it from home to Canada for a fellow collector. It's my Lehrolite shoplite. I guess back in the 60s it was a low-end shoplite but naturally it's built better than today's top-notch stuff... The guy was a real cocky sun of a you know what but he didn't even search the car or anything. He looked inside at me and my bother. He didn't acknowlege the big 2-lamp preheater across our lamps though lol. I'm ok with that!
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nicksfans
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I've been to Canada too and ironically the American guy on the way back was a lot cooler than the Canadian guy on the way there.
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I like my lamps thick, my ballasts heavy, and my fixtures tough.
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streetlight98
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Mike McCann
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Yeah i noticed that the last time we were there. The US is a lot more lax on the customs than Canada is for whatever reason. Probably because we're from the US but that really doesn't change anything...
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