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Dave

wrote:

On 20 Jun, 21:03, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

Hi All

I quite often get asked to change fluorescent tubes in local offices & often
the starter is at fault. Since they all seem to be different makes with
different part numbers I usually take an old one to the local wholesaler to
buy them.

I'd rather keep some on the van - is there a 'universal starter' I could use
to fit all applications?

And - those bloody awful chrome plated plastic grids - I usually remove the
ceiling tile next to the light box & slide the grid aside - but sometimes
the adjacent tiles are above partitions - ant tips on removing/replacing the
little buggers?

4-80w starters are good for most lights, but not all.
Commercial good practice is to replace the starter when you replace
the tube. And of course to use a tube that more or less matches the
colour temp of the others there.

When I had the job at the school, I was convinced that all the tubes in
the hall should be changed at the same time that 3 of them had failed.
They were all different colours, indicating that they were all different
ages. The colours were nothing to do with different colour temperature,
just old age. My reasoning was that the scaffolding was so expensive,
that it was economical to replace all the tubes in one operation. I was
over ruled by the head. Such short sightedness

Dave