If these are exposed bulbs that could fall to the floor if broken,
they have been slid inside a plastic tube to catch the broken
stuff. They are more liable to be T5s than T8s. The plastic
sleeves must not be quite the right type. If the bulbs are that
new, I'm sure they have electronic ballasts, not tar filled
magnetics. I am not aware of failure mode crating additional
heat.

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______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




wrote in message
...
Hello, was in the store the other day. wife was shopping i was
bored
as usual. Looked up and saw plastic dripping from one of he 4ft
tubes
in the store. One of the lamps had failed. this was the 4ft type
thinner octron bulbs i believe . the lamps had a plastic cover
which
was red hot almost on fire where the end of the bulb was as the
bulb
was failing. I looked at other lamps that were in the store and
all
had these plastic covers on them. The ones that were burnt out
also
had melting on the ends . Just wondering if this is normal for
these
lamps to get that hot upon failure. I know the older t-12s
didnt get
that hot. jr