On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 06:36:14 -0700, lance wrote:

Could you give me some more details on that, like what ballasts you used
and where you got them? Was it relatively cheap and easy to swap them
out? I'm assuming it would be cheaper than spending the $150 on the
high-bay fixtures....

Here's a snip from a post of mine from about a year ago:
---
Bought 10 of the Simkar WLD-4 shop lights ($20 each). These are the
"mid-grade" shop lights at blue borg, but frankly still crap. But the
shell is OK, and really all I needed. Found an inexpensive source
(goodmart.com) for a solid T8 ballast (Sylvania QT2X32/120IS-SC) for $13
per. Ordered up a box of 10 along with a box of 30 Sylvania
FO32/835/XP/ECO lamps ($2.69 per).

Dropped in the new ballasts and fired it up. It's just beautiful.
Instant-on, very bright and the lamps are CRI 82 and 3500K, so they're
reasonably close to incandescents. I am in shop light nirvana for under
$35 each.
---

A year later I've had no failures, not even a bad lamp thus far. I'm happy
with the results.

--
-Joe Wells