"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message ...
Awl--

Some time ago on rcm, the subject of fluorescent lighting came up, and I
gushy-gushed about the great $7.99 deal for HDs 4-foot *electronic* 2-buhb
*T-8* (thinner style buhb) fixtures--replete w/ cord, chain/hooks, budget
reflector, etc.

Vs. my local lite guy, who does nuthin but *make* these fixtures, and
charges $20+ bucks for a non-electronic older T12 (thicker buhb), w/ no
cord, chain, reflector...
W/ no *apparent* diff. in quality. Boy, was I ****ed, just having bought a
load from him!!

OK, so where's the catch?? Ready??

Hint 1: W/ my effing new-found neutral/ground problem, ahm amp-probing everygoddamthing in sight....
Hint 2: a guy on rcm echoed the typical, you get whachoo payfer, HD is
****, etc. etc. Ahm fence-straddlin, bleating, Not necessarily...
He wuz right....

OK, here it is:

The current draw of the HD special is *more than DOUBLE* that of my local
guy's OLDER T12 fixture!!!! More than double!!! About 1.1 vs. about .5.
Goodgawd....

So, fer allayou payin CA electric rates (which proly have just caught up to
fukn NYC rates!), a shopful of these goddamm HD lites could show up mightily
at the end of the year, electricity-wise.
Not to mention the added heat load, and proly accelerated wear of the proly
very cheap ballast, ekc.

Now, admittedly, I didn't compare HDs T-8 w/ my local guy's T-8, but part of
the *whole point* of electronic T-8s is in fact energy conservation, which
should make the difference even more, uh, glaring.
I will, when I buy another fixture, spend the bucks on my local guy's
version, and report back, but almost guarownteed that the comparison will be
even worser.

PV'd again...
Ceptin who would know, ceptin a neutral-plagued chronically PV'd asshole
runnin around w/ an Amprobe?? In diapers, bunny slippers, w/ a ceegar....
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll



Here's a copy of a post I made in 1998 regarding shop lights. All of them are still working....Paul

"I recently built a shop and purchased 24 fixtures from
Sears. I got a really good deal(I thought!). They were
on sale for $7.99 plus I got a 10% volume discount. I
had bought these before and was satisfied. They were
40 watt and had real ballasts. Well I put up first one
and worked great. Second one was DOA. Third one buzzed
my AM radio something terrible. Went downhill from there.
Ended up returning the lot. Turns out that the old fixtures
had USA ballasts, while these were Mexico. Very poor
quality. Ended up paying $16.95 at Home Depot and getting
bulbs at Costco. Cost was a lot more than budgetted, but
these work and no radio buzz."