Author Topic: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen?  (Read 5082 times)
Michael
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #15 on: April 13, 2022, 12:01:38 AM » Author: Michael
Yes. The tubes are Philips TLD 58W/840 “New Generation”. The ballasts are electronic also Philips made from 1991. There are also slightly older reflector lights on the ceiling with electronic ballasts and special TLD 32W/840 HF tubes. Those were having similar life span. The problem here was that some of them were destroyed by vandals which were throwing empty beer bottles onto the lights.
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #16 on: April 26, 2022, 10:24:21 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
Impressive, that's way over 100000 hours. Although I suppose with the 24/7 operation it's less stressful for the lamps. Most fluorescent lamps here were rated at 3-4 hours per start.
You can try using incandescent lamps in series to make the lamp last longer
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由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #17 on: June 06, 2022, 08:11:45 PM » Author: 108CAM
I forgot to mention my US Made Sylvania Lifelines from December 1979. They still work perfectly and have almost no blackening on the ends. They're also right hand etched. I'd also like to mention my Canadian Sylvania F20T12 "Natural Deluxe" or "NDX" which has a pink phosphor.
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #18 on: June 12, 2022, 10:58:13 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
I forgot to mention my US Made Sylvania Lifelines from December 1979. They still work perfectly and have almost no blackening on the ends. They're also right hand etched. I'd also like to mention my Canadian Sylvania F20T12 "Natural Deluxe" or "NDX" which has a pink phosphor.
The fluorescent tube etched on the right side should be old, because most of the fluorescent tubes are now etched on the left side.
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I've been collecting light bulbs since I was 2 years old and I've been collecting them ever since.
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由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
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Bulb base in China:E12(CES) E14(SES) B22d(BC) E27(ES) E40(GES)

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #19 on: June 12, 2022, 11:00:35 PM » Author: bulb_tester2009
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese F20T10 in my hometown of the 90s is also etched on the right.
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I've been collecting light bulbs since I was 2 years old and I've been collecting them ever since.
 :hps::hps::hps:
由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
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Bulb base in China:E12(CES) E14(SES) B22d(BC) E27(ES) E40(GES)

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #20 on: June 13, 2022, 07:20:22 PM » Author: 108CAM
I've also noticed that lots of the blue tubes used in bug zappers have lasted a long time as the bug zappers are rarely turned off for obvious reasons
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Fluro starter pings combined with a 50hz ballast hum and blinking tubes is music to my ears.

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #21 on: June 14, 2022, 09:40:46 PM » Author: Miles
I remember that some of the fluorescent tubes we made in the lab with the most optimized thermionic cathodes could last in excess of 100 kh (statistically extrapolated data).

Meaning? The filaments were dipped in the emitter sauce a little longer?  :lol:

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #22 on: June 15, 2022, 12:34:54 AM » Author: bulb_tester2009
I've also noticed that lots of the blue tubes used in bug zappers have lasted a long time as the bug zappers are rarely turned off for obvious reasons
Personally, I feel that the longer a fluorescent lamp is lit, the longer its actual lifespan will be
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I've been collecting light bulbs since I was 2 years old and I've been collecting them ever since.
 :hps::hps::hps:
由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
Note:
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #23 on: June 15, 2022, 12:59:03 AM » Author: joseph_125
It makes sense as most lamp makers rate their fluorescent lamps for a longer life when switched every 12 hours compared to every 3 hours.
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #24 on: June 15, 2022, 01:39:21 AM » Author: bulb_tester2009
I agree with you, it's an experience I've actually used.
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I've been collecting light bulbs since I was 2 years old and I've been collecting them ever since.
 :hps::hps::hps:
由于我来自中国,所以英语不精通,大部分内容都是翻译的,所以可能不通顺,请大家谅解
Note:
Bulb base in China:E12(CES) E14(SES) B22d(BC) E27(ES) E40(GES)

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #25 on: June 23, 2022, 07:24:20 PM » Author: 108CAM
I need to mention my Canadian Sylvania F20T12 Warm White tubes again. I recently deciphered the date codes as January 1965 or 1975 
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #26 on: June 30, 2022, 04:33:32 AM » Author: ultraviolet
at my work we have a couple fixtures with westinghouse warm white black-enders :blkender: on rapid-start ballasts that literally nobody remembers the last relamp of. no end blackening :eolfl: or any signs of degradation on them at all. the impressive thing is that one of them is a workbench light that sees relatively frequent starts. they really did build them to last back in that era.

aside from that, we also have a number of fixtures in the auto skooter house that appear to not have been relamped since the 1990s or so... at least the tubes (philips unpainted aluminium end ones, with the shield logo) date to that era and their physical condition points to having been installed for that long. we do have a lot of old stock in the light bulb room though so it is possible they were installed more recently.

as for my own personal stuff, i have a switch-start bench lamp that has a ge f14t12 in it and that tube has run flawlessly with 0 degradation since i acquired the fixture well over a decade ago. it doesn't see so many hours tbh but i'm always amazed by how much longer tubes run on switch-start and preheat setups last. it's just a lot gentler on the tube than rapid start or (heaven forbid) instant start electronic setups are.

that said, we run a lot of f20t12s off standard f32t8 electronic ballasts and they last years and years that way. granted, the tubes don't see a ton of starts, just once each evening when it's time for lights to come on. still, it's very much proven to me that the "this ballast is only for these specific tubes" labeling is hogwash.
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applying obsolete lighting technologies for the enjoyment of the masses; why not use a magnetic ballast for a new installation? and when they tell you you can't run a t12 off that "t8" ballast.... just look back to the old preheat systems where wattage was the only spec listed.

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #27 on: July 10, 2022, 12:16:24 AM » Author: Sparky_t17
When we moved into my parents house that they currently live in now, the garage had four T12 40 watt shop lights. After about five or so years, most had long since burnt out. All except one. Another ten or so years passed. My dad asked me to help him replace the fixtures. The one fixture had a lamp in it, if I recall it was a GE lamp, that I swear had about ten or so inches of black sputter on each end still somehow producing some semblance of light. I couldn’t believe how long that damn thing went.
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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #28 on: July 24, 2022, 08:46:16 AM » Author: HIDLad001
The Sylvania 40 watt T12 tubes in our laundry room. They were original to our house, which was built in the 90s, and they only failed last year when they started flickering, but we ended up replacing the fixture with an LED one  :eoled:.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2023, 10:59:07 AM by HIDLad001 » Logged

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Re: How long has the longest-lived fluorescent tube you have ever seen? « Reply #29 on: September 12, 2022, 09:21:38 PM » Author: BlitzBiker2001
A school we take care of still has some of its original General Electric Watt-Miser F34T12 lamps from 1988 that are seldom used, but they still work. We still have lamps from 1999-2001 in classrooms at a different school that have almost daily use that are still going.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2022, 09:27:34 PM by BlitzBiker2001 » Logged

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