On 29/04/2018 20:16, Johnny B Good wrote:
On Sun, 29 Apr 2018 10:32:08 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

I decided on the latter option (E-Ballast)
it worked fine without any changes. Light comes on instantly

A few years back I changed the starters on three fluoros in my garage
and shed for the electronic ones, two of the tubes died within a couple
of days of using them, I presume the 'harsher' start was what did for
them?

One of the electronic starters has now died, and one of the original
starters put back, if I go to the shed in the depths of winter the tube
may light quickly, but takes a long time to reach decent brightness, I
guess next time something fails will be the time for LED tubes

The older, now sadly obsolete, T12 tubes would light up to full
brightness in all but the coldest of room temperatures and on a
"Quickstart"(tm) ballast[1], fire up in about quarter of a second without
all the fuss and sputtering of electrodes of a switch start ballast
making them almost as instant as an incandescent light and with a tube
life of about two or three times that of one fitted into a switch start
fitting typically used for kitchen lighting.

Thanks to H&S regulations, the newer, and more fragile T8 versions also
have to contend with an inadequate dosing of mercury (about a tenth of
that which used to be used in the older T12 tubes I believe) which would
appear to be *the* cause for the CFL like warm up characteristic. :-(

I reckon a mere doubling up of the new excruciatingly low mercury dosing
levels currently mandated by H&S would eliminate most, if not all, of
this run up time and still provide an 80% reduction of the mercury
contamination risk of a broken tube. There does, after all, appear to be
hard evidence that H&S can take things far too far. :-(

[1] Although a T8 tube can be fitted in place of a T12 tube, these refuse
to start on a "Quickstart"(tm) ballast circuit, requiring either a
downgrade to the switchstart ballast circuit or else an upgrade to an
electronic microprocessor controlled HF ballast.


Not so long ago I guided someone how to change a fluorescent tube to LED
in a Mazda Netaline. The T8's would not strike which I suspect was due
to a lack of mercury and no ballast.

I assume that you know the Netaline, if not enjoy this link.

http://www.streetlightonline.co.uk/N...hotographs.htm

Now that one really does need a 360 deg beam.

Cheers

--
Adam