On Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:14:35 -0000, Skipweasel
wrote:

Presumably you have to have tubes that are capable of coming up to the
right temperature in that time?

The list of suitable lamp types is given on the page to which I linked
(e.g. 4-65W linear T5/T8/T12); there is no suggestion that they are
anything other than standard tubes. The only specific limitation
mentioned is that it is "only suitable for inductive circuits without
capacitors for serial compensation".

It's possible that the tube lifetime is slightly reduced compared with
using a slower electronic starter (which they also make), but hopefully it
will still be greater than with a conventional starter.

The manufacturer's site is he

http://www.palmstep.com/html/eng/starter/index.htm

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/