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Posted by Boden on August 5, 2008, 1:37 am
Don Klipstein wrote:
>
>>
>>>Every few years I've bought a few cheap fluorescent bench lights
>>>(usually 40watt bulbs). It now seems that the recent ones are dying.
>>>How much do you have to spend to get a lamp that isn't garbage?
>>
>>It's probably the whole fixture that's garbage. Two lamp 32 watt T-8 strip
>
>>from an electrical supply should run around $40
>
> The main garbage part of those $10 or whatever dual-40-watt and
> dual-25-watt "shop lights" is the ballast. Some call that item in many
> of those cheap "shop lights" a "residential grade" ballast. I like to
> call that grade of ballast a "stool specimen".
> The grade of ballast I am thinking of has reduced efficiency and feeds
> the bulbs a subpar waveform of current that reduces their efficiency
> and often shortens their lives. The ballasts themselves may overheat
> easily, especially if the fixture is not suspended in mid-air with those
> little chains.
> Of course, the whole fixture is cheap.
>
> Get the good stuff from an electrical supply shop. You will get better
> efficiency, more light, and better reliability.
>
> Ad please go along with the advice to get 32 watt 4-footers with
> electronic ballasts.
>
> - Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)
With the price of heating oil north of $4.50/gallon it is less expensive
for me to heat with light bulbs than oil. The "Buy efficient Lighting
Myth" is just that.
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