On Mar 12, 11:14*pm, "Richard Russell" wrote:
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/


You'll find that tubes very often wont strike after just 0.4 seconds
preheat, so you'll get flashing during start, like a non-electronic
starter.

If you want quick starting, you need an electronic ballast, which will
operate the tube in a more sophisticated manner than a lump of iron
ballast plus a plug-in starter.


NT