On Mar 13, 8:55*am, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
* * * * Tabby writes:



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.

These starters don't require any preheat time to strike the tube - they
simply restrike every half mains cycle with a high voltage pulse until
the arc stablises, but other than the noise you get from the ballast
during this phase, you won't notice - it just looks like the tube is on.
The preheat time is purely to extend tube life. The repeating strike time
is usually limited to about a seccond, so it won't continue trying to
start a dead tube.

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.

Instant start electronic ballasts seem to have become impossible to
find over last 5 years. I don't know why. Even buying same model number
ones I used to, they are no longer instant start.

Sounds like the first ones I had years ago - the resulting noise used
to scare people.


NT