Hi

Okay, first little background story. Because circline fixtures are rare in Finland I decided buy one from abroad. When I was looking fixtures on ebay, I found one in U.S. I payed 9$ for it and did have it shipped over here Finland. This fixture, made by FSC. Has 2 circline lamps. One 22W and other 32W. Ballast is MagneTek 449-LR-LH-WS-TC-P Rapid Start. Ofcourse ballast works 120V and line voltage here Finland is 230V. So I bought this transformer. transformers Secondary is only 115V, but I dont think ballast would mind 5V undervoltage. More important, the main question is Frequency. Ballast was designed work with 60Hz. And now its running in 50Hz. How does this effect? Can it reduce life of ballast or lamps?

My next goal is to get fluorescent fixture for U-bent lamps. Those are so cool looking.

Transformer: http://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1108&pos=0

Fixturehttp://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=1105&pos=0

The voltage on the transformer won't be an issue.  An article on Wikipedia states, "Standardized at 120 V. Electricity suppliers aim to keep most customers supplied between 114 and 126 V most of the time."  The house i grew up in read 115v at the wall outlet.  The one I live in now reads 125v at the wall outlet.

Frequency maybe a different issue however.  Some other members from Europe may have some insight on that.

I know the member Max can calculate to help make it possible.....he has helped me and Phil with our European LPS fixture on 230 volt 50 hz to 120 volt 60 hz......so maybe he can help?

Yeah, I would  appreciate some help. I was wondering, that if I had current clamp meter I could measure Lamp current. But sadly I own just regulat multimeter. We had some conversation on this particular matter on gallery. And user Medved gime me good technical explanation how will it effect. So it is highly possible that lamps are being overpowered. But how drastic that will effect the lifespan of lamps? will it kill my lamps weeks/months? Now my fixture have been lit over day and nothing big have yet happen. it would be easy to change the ballast to 230V type except I couldn't find ballast that could drive 2 lamps with different wattage. Closest Finnish wattage would be 18W for 22W lamp and 30W for 32W lamp so it would be little underpowered. and probably fitting 2 ballast in small space would be problem.

For 32W lamp use F36W T8 ballast (EU typical 1200mm tube - it has same 0.43A rating), for 22W the F18W ballast (for 600mm tube - same 0.37A rating). And in this way you might simply wire it as a 3-way fixture...
Make sure (when using magnetic preheat), starters are easy to change - as it is recommended to change them with each lamp (bad lamp damages the starter and after lamp change, such worn-out starter causes damage to the new lamp. And they are not expensive)
Btw. It surpriszes me, as circline fixtures with this combination (22+32W) are in central Europe sold normally, even with dimmable ballasts...

Overpowering the lamp by 20% would not have as drastic consequence to lamp itself, but it might overheat the ballast - as losses are mainly caused by current passed through a wire, so the power dissipation is proportional to square of the current, so current increase by 20% mean ballast heat power increase by 40%, so does the temperature rise from ambient. And ballast life halves for each 10degC temperature increase, while this curve bend up even faster, when approaching thermal limits like melting point (or so) of some material used in the ballast.

Gues I have no other choice. Original ballast overheat protection worked. I probably have to place new ballasts back side of fixture. so I must lower whole fixture. I could build it looking like those Asian circline fixtures. Something like this: http://www.arktikprospekt.com/20080319_Gunma_0244-thumb.jpg Maybe I someday travel to Japan or China to get real one. I will post some pics after I get it done. Thanks for the tips.

Okay. Now I have altered my fixture. Check out my gallery. I have some pics there. I installed helvar made 18W ballast, but didnt find 36W helvar so I have to install acec(french) manufactured equal one. it works fine. now I have to only think how I'm gonna fix it to ceiling. I did have to put those ballasts back side of fixture, because I cound't fit them where the old one was.