PL-18W (quad tube or 2 U-tubes) no. These are for lower arc current (as far as I remember it is around 0.22A; the F36T8 is a 0.43A lamp), so need different choke. Plus their arc voltage is too high so only single tube may work on 230V mains.

PLL-18w (twin tube or a single U-tube) yes, but I haven't seen such format with a build in starter.

PL-18W (quad tube or 2 U-tubes) no. These are for lower arc current (as far as I remember it is around 0.22A; the F36T8 is a 0.43A lamp), so need different choke. Plus their arc voltage is too high so only single tube may work on 230V mains.

PLL-18w (twin tube or a single U-tube) yes, but I haven't seen such format with a build in starter.

I found exactly 0.42A on 36w T8 ballast itself, I have another smaller ballast for circular fluorescent tube, 22w I think, don't remember how much they produced, if the ballast rated something really closed to 0.22A so it is safe to use on the PL lamp right?

BTW, got this Venture Lighting's 160w MBTF , I assume that it means Mercury Blended Tungsten Filament? I ordered this from online and I choose self-ballasted option, then I see this symbol on the box looks like it says it needed ballast?

Self-ballasted lamp should have just plug directly into 240v.. (No more selfballasted c***) LOL.. on the third photo I can clear sees the tungsten filament, because of the symbols on the box, I haven't fire up the lamp..





   

"M" stands for mercury, "B" for high pressure, "T" the integrated (tungsten filament) ballast, "F" means fluorescent coating (that converts the UV into some visible, boosting efficacy and improving the overall color).

Indeed the pictogram is weird there, this blended lamp should run straight from the mains.
I would suspect it is a "generic" sleeve they are using for all HID's and these pictos are just pre-printed on them...

Lol. What capacitor should be use with a 400w mercury vapor? can I use the 10uf or can I run it without the capacitor?

Lol. What capacitor should be use with a 400w mercury vapor? can I use the 10uf or can I run it without the capacitor?

In which circuit/ballast (you didn't let us know where are you from, so I do not know if you are a 120V or 230V guy...)?
If it is just a power factor correction (so plain parallel to mains input), you do not need any for the lamp to work. For high power factor and 230V/50Hz and a typical series reactor ballast it is around 39uF (exact calculation gave 41uF, but usually a bit less is used to make sure the circuit is never capacitive).

For 120V/60Hz HX ballast:
The capacitance depends on the voltage tap, where it is connected and the exact ballast OCV:
C = sqrt((Ilamp*OCV)^2 - (Plamp+Plosses)^2)/(Vtap^2 * 2 * Pi() * Freq)
Or you may base your calculation on measurement of the ballast input current:
C = sqrt((Iuncompensated * 120)^2 - (Plamp+Plosses)^2)/(Vtap^2 * 2 * Pi() * Freq)
So for an example of OCV=220V, Vtap=240V (the voltage tap, where the capacitor is connected), 10% losses, 3.5A lamp current it will be about 29uF.


The most uncertain are the CWA ballasts, where the capacitor is the main ballasting component (in series with the lamp): There you have no other option then find out, what capacitance the ballast was designed for, so find the makers instructions. There are way too many free choice parameters the CWA ballast designer has, so it may really differ a lot among different ballast models, all for the same lamp.