Most CFL's i've seen used at least the "filament fusing" protection concept

I think last CFL ballast I used must have had the filament fusing protection feature but it was a 23W CFl ballast that I hooked up to an F40T12 with the two wires that go to each filament joined together so protection was bypassed.

@TiCoune66 some slimline ballasts can run shorter lamps...if it lists F48T12, then it'll run F40T12's as
well. If not you can run 2 F40T12's in series to equal 1 F96T12
Slimline ballasts will sometimes overheat from running a bad lamp (but at least with mine it takes a few
hours before they get hot enough for the Thermal Protection to shut down the ballast)

@Eliot_240 Check eBay .. there are tuns of listings for F32T8 IS ballasts that will work (at least on
the US-eBay site)

@xmaslightguy

The T8 tubes here in the UK are different to yours and are designed as a retrofit for T12s, every electronic T8 ballast I've come across uses EOL protection. EU and British standards most probably require all ballasts to have a protection feature. Instant start ballasts with one wire going to each cathode are something else that doesn't seem to exist here.

@Eliot_240 From my understanding, UK T8's are F36T8 (rather than the US F32T8)?. There was a time when i used to see the F36T8's sold here as well, but not any more. Advertisements claimed they could be used in existing F40T12 fixtures. I shoulda bought some back when they were available LOL.

If shipping wasn't so expensive i'd say order a multi-volt (120v-277v 50hz/60hz) F32T8 ballast from a US seller (the ballasts can be had for cheap on eBay, but overseas shipping would make it expensive). It
would work as far as lighting the lamps.

@xmaslightguy Yes you're right, they only work with switchstart circuits and electronic ballasts though, they wont work with rapid start even on 240v mains.

I've considered ordering an American ballast, I have a variac that I could use if I bought just a standard 110V one. I also want a slimline ballast as such things are almost non existent here.

When F36T8's were available here i don't know if they were were compatible with rapid start, or only preheat (simply been too long to remember LOL)...

There's still allot of existing F96T12 slimlines in use here, but they are becoming more and more uncommon as places 'upgrade' to F32T8's (T8 slimlines do exist but are rare)

I am still looking for a ballast that can run lamps up to the vacuum loss. The only F32T8 electronic ballast I have do the EOL shutoff thing, BORING! I can't even wire a jumper on the broken cathode to fool it, doesn't work! 

Don't mind what I said, I found a way!! My electronic ballast runs lamps in parallel, so by joining both outputs together (blue and red on the same socket), I can run < 20W fluorescents up to the very end without tripping the EOL protection! I tried with F40s and the protection trips right away. I think the ballast detects rectifying then cut power if any. < 20W lamps are 60V and not 100V like most 4 footers, so the OCV is most likely high enough to force a rectifying lamp.

I killed a F15T8/D using that method. It was so cool to see the orange flashing and the arc swirling like crazy! I can't do this with 4 footers, but I guess it's better than nothing!

I think the ballast detects rectifying then cut power if any. < 20W lamps are 60V and not 100V like most 4 footers, so the OCV is most likely high enough to force a rectifying lamp.

Based on the behavior you describe the EOL protection trigger is simply the arc voltage (or directly, or indirectly via hard switching detection, the later being cheaper, but less sensitive, so reliable for lower nominal arc voltages; but in order to protect the ballast itself and not e.g. sockets, the hard switching detection is far enough). So if you try worn out lamps, the one with 100V nominal would have actually 140V on the arc (so above the threshod), the 60V one would be about 100V, so below the EOL threshold, so do not trip it.