In article ,
Stephen writes:
On Tue, 6 Oct 2009 23:57:43 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

I think you might struggle to find a new 8' fitting nowadays.

Thanks for your replies.

I don't desperately need an eight foot light; that's just what was
here when I moved in. I'm sure a smaller tube would light the area
just as well but if I went for a smaller size I would obviously need
to buy a smaller fitting, this one is a bit rusty so a change could be
justified but it might be cheaper just to buy a replacement 8' tube.

There are still lots of commercial 8' installations
in the UK though, and they'll be around until the EU bans the
tubes.

Are they planning to ban them just like the 100W incandescent bulbs? I
never knew that. I don't think it will work.Where shops used to use
one big tube they now use four smaller ones to light the same area so
although the wattage of each tube has fallen, this is balanced by a
four fold increase in the number of tubes which must use the same or

The 125W tube will be banned by virtue of most of the halophosphate
tubes being banned for having too low efficiency. These are mostly
T12 tubes, and no fittings have been sold for them in the UK since
around 1980, and they have been quite difficult to obtain for the
last 15 years, so no one is much going to notice here (not so true
in other parts of the EU where use it still more widespread). The
100W 8' tube is a strange beast. It was the first ever energy saving
retrofit tube, invented by Thorn Lighting in the late 1970's.
However, unlike the other (later) energy saving retrofits, it's a
T12 rather than a T8. I don't know off-hand what gas fill and phosphor
it uses nowadays, or its efficiency (although it's higher than the
original T12 125W), but it might survive. The original 100W 8' tube
retrofit would only work with series ballast switch-start fittings,
and for this reason, some 8' fittings with rapid start or quick start
control gear couldn't take the energy saving retrofit tube, and had
to continue using the original 125W tube. The technology of the
current versions of the retrofit tube may have changed in the light
of later developments.

greater power in total. I think the government is wrong to chase after
householders using ten 60W bulbs when shops use several kilowatts of
lighting for ten hours a day, every day; sometimes left on overnight.

--
Andrew Gabriel
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