In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
bof writes:
In message
,
writes
For the OP, magnetic ballasts are a lot more reliable than
electronic.

Yep these were both electronic.

Out of curiosity, what make/model?

Sorry can't say now as it went back to HomeBase.


Are they in a particularly warm area (e.g. my loft would be
unsuitable for electronic ballasts as it gets too hot)?

Nope, it's a cool dry basement and they're stood off about 8mm from the
ceiling.



At work, we have thousands of office fluorescent lamps with
electronic ballasts. There's one guy who seems to spend half
his time replacing failed electronic ballasts in these.

Do they actually fail with a bang and smoke, or just fail? both of mine
went bang and melted:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/bofphoto/b19223cb.jpg

from memory the previous one failed at the same part of the ballast.



--
bof at bof dot me dot uk