We have some 10 year old Fitzgerald fluorescent lights. On one of these the
inductor has broken down. I don't want to replace the whole fitting as they
all match at the moment. Unfortunately Fitzgerald Lighting went toes up last
December. Any idea where I can source a new inductor, please? For a 4 ft
fitting - 36/40 w. BTW, I assume it's an inductor - the big ballast thingy
inside the fitting.

I see that a new company has started production under the Fitzgerald name,
and I'll call them on Monday, but I would have thought that things like
inductors are generic.





--
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their first
trip.

GB brought next idea :
We have some 10 year old Fitzgerald fluorescent lights. On one of these the
inductor has broken down. I don't want to replace the whole fitting as they
all match at the moment. Unfortunately Fitzgerald Lighting went toes up last
December. Any idea where I can source a new inductor, please? For a 4 ft
fitting - 36/40 w. BTW, I assume it's an inductor - the big ballast thingy
inside the fitting.

Just drop in to any good electrical wholesaler and ask for a a choke or
ballast unit for a 4 foot 36/40w fitting. I assume the fitting has a
starter?

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

"GB" wrote in message
...
We have some 10 year old Fitzgerald fluorescent lights. On one of these
the inductor has broken down. I don't want to replace the whole fitting as
they all match at the moment. Unfortunately Fitzgerald Lighting went toes
up last December. Any idea where I can source a new inductor, please? For
a 4 ft fitting - 36/40 w. BTW, I assume it's an inductor - the big ballast
thingy inside the fitting.

I see that a new company has started production under the Fitzgerald name,
and I'll call them on Monday, but I would have thought that things like
inductors are generic.





--
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their
first trip.


http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...l_1/index.html

Peter

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...l_1/index.html

Peter

Brilliant, thanks, Peter and Harry - that's what i wanted to know. For some
reason Google shopping did not find any of these. I'll try my local
electrical wholesalers first.

Thanks again.



--
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their
first trip.

On Nov 21, 11:54*am, "GB" wrote:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...dex/Lighting_F...

Peter

Brilliant, thanks, Peter and Harry - that's what i wanted to know. For some
reason Google shopping did not find any of these. I'll try my local
electrical wholesalers first.

Thanks again.

--
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their
first trip.

Realizing that the UK is 230 volt 50 hertz just thought I'd mention
our most successful experiences here with 115 volt 60 hertz. All but
two of the fluorescent fixtures here are from used/dumped equipment.
We also have quite a number of spare but used ballasts. Having taken
the opportunity to grab some from a nearby school renovation project
that were being dumped. The job electricians even helped us load them
into our vehicle!
Each ballast has about 8 wires which are colour coded so it's easy to
see where they connect; splicing joining of wires is required. Here we
use wire-nuts which being within the grounded metal fixture are
completely safe. Although in some 40+ years never had a problem with
wire-nut connections anyway. Fixtures should be earthed/grounded.
Also kept a quantity of the sockets that the 48 inch fluorescent tubes
fit into; because there is occasionally also a broken one.
So if anyone you know is throwing out an old fixture, dismantle it and
keep some parts. If you're reasonably 'handy' and have a few tools one
can (with the power switched off) repair your own fixtures.
A brand new ballast here can cost anywhere from $18 to $30 Canadian
(roughly 12 to 20 quid!). But used ballasts of the correct voltage
etc. can also be used to rebuild and renovate older fixtures**. There
are two in a relatives private garage now that were salvaged from a
gravel pit and converted from a 3 phase voltage to standard domestic
voltage.
A number of used fixtures of variuos vintages are cluttering up the
basement and somebody might as well reuse them. So am about to rebuild
another two more sets of two or four tube fixtures for two friends of
my relative. A quick rub down and some white spray improves their
appearance to where they are certainly presentable enough for use
eight feet above the floor in a garage or workshop.
Also mention that we also 'lucked into' (well you gotta ask of course)
a whole 48 foot row of electronic ballast fluorescent fixtures which
for last few years have been in our basement workshop. Have only
replaced one of the tubes so far and that was one of the originals.
When asking for the used fixtures the only question was "Can you take
all of them. To avoid (the contractor) a trip to the dump/tip"? "Gee
guys I've only got one pickup truck"!
** Got two weird looking older fixtures with 'three' tubes which will
probably convert to two tubers. Modern fixtures (here) btw do not use
'starters'.
Good luck.

In article ,
terry writes:
On Nov 21, 11:54*am, "GB" wrote:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...dex/Lighting_F...

Peter

Brilliant, thanks, Peter and Harry - that's what i wanted to know. For some
reason Google shopping did not find any of these. I'll try my local
electrical wholesalers first.

Realizing that the UK is 230 volt 50 hertz just thought I'd mention
our most successful experiences here with 115 volt 60 hertz. All but
two of the fluorescent fixtures here are from used/dumped equipment.
We also have quite a number of spare but used ballasts. Having taken
the opportunity to grab some from a nearby school renovation project
that were being dumped. The job electricians even helped us load them
into our vehicle!
Each ballast has about 8 wires which are colour coded so it's easy to
see where they connect; splicing joining of wires is required. Here we
Modern fixtures (here) btw do not use
'starters'.

US (or American in general) fluorescent control gear is somewhat more
complicated than the gear commonly used in 220-250V countries, because
the lower mains voltage in the US means you can't simply get away with
a series ballast, as has been generally used elsewhere for 70 years.
It tends to be based on a stepup transformer, ballast, and rapid start
transformer, or a leakage reactance transformer which combines all 3
functions on one core. Our series ballasts have just two wires connected,
and are much smaller and cheaper (and more reliable, notwithstanding
this thread;-).

Electronic control gear took over here commercially 10+ years ago.
In the domestic market, series ballasts are still common, although
electronic control gear is now taking over that too. EU rules will
force that eventually. Existing series ballast switchstart fittings
will continue to be in service for decades though.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
GB wrote:
We have some 10 year old Fitzgerald fluorescent lights. On one of these
the inductor has broken down. I don't want to replace the whole fitting
as they all match at the moment. Unfortunately Fitzgerald Lighting went
toes up last December. Any idea where I can source a new inductor,
please? For a 4 ft fitting - 36/40 w. BTW, I assume it's an inductor -
the big ballast thingy inside the fitting.

If it is a clunky old type you might consider swapping it for an
electronic one. No flicker and higher efficiency. Tubes last longer too.

--
*I'm really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Nov 21, 2:17*pm, "GB" wrote:
We have some 10 year old Fitzgerald fluorescent lights. On one of these the
inductor has broken down. I don't want to replace the whole fitting as they
all match at the moment. Unfortunately Fitzgerald Lighting went toes up last
December. *Any idea where I can source a new inductor, please? For a 4 ft
fitting - 36/40 w. BTW, I assume it's an inductor - the big ballast thingy
inside the fitting.

I see that a new company has started production under the Fitzgerald name,
and I'll call them on Monday, but I would have thought that things like
inductors are generic.


As said any 4' tube ballast is fine, just check that it'll physically
fit in your fitting.


NT

On Nov 21, 1:44*pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
* * * * terry writes:





On Nov 21, 11:54*am, "GB" wrote:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...dex/Lighting_F....

Peter

Brilliant, thanks, Peter and Harry - that's what i wanted to know. For some
reason Google shopping did not find any of these. I'll try my local
electrical wholesalers first.

Realizing that the UK is 230 volt 50 hertz just thought I'd mention
our most successful experiences here with 115 volt 60 hertz. All but
two of the fluorescent fixtures here are from used/dumped equipment.
We also have quite a number of spare but used ballasts. Having taken
the opportunity to grab some from a nearby school renovation project
that were being dumped. The job electricians even helped us load them
into our vehicle!
Each ballast has about 8 wires which are colour coded so it's easy to
see where they connect; splicing joining of wires is required. Here we
Modern fixtures (here) btw do not use
'starters'.

US (or American in general) fluorescent control gear is somewhat more
complicated than the gear commonly used in 220-250V countries, because
the lower mains voltage in the US means you can't simply get away with
a series ballast, as has been generally used elsewhere for 70 years.
It tends to be based on a stepup transformer, ballast, and rapid start
transformer, or a leakage reactance transformer which combines all 3
functions on one core. Our series ballasts have just two wires connected,
and are much smaller and cheaper (and more reliable, notwithstanding
this thread;-).

Electronic control gear took over here commercially 10+ years ago.
In the domestic market, series ballasts are still common, although
electronic control gear is now taking over that too. EU rules will
force that eventually. Existing series ballast switchstart fittings
will continue to be in service for decades though.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi Andrew think I've seen that series inductor for fluorescent tube
strip on some North American electric cooking stoves!
These use the 230 volta available for 'heavy domestic appliances. So
replacing a ballast in a 230 fixture will be even simpler?

On 21 Nov, 19:56, NT wrote:
On Nov 21, 2:17*pm, "GB" wrote:

We have some 10 year old Fitzgerald fluorescent lights. On one of these the
inductor has broken down. I don't want to replace the whole fitting as they
all match at the moment. Unfortunately Fitzgerald Lighting went toes up last
December. *Any idea where I can source a new inductor, please? For a 4 ft
fitting - 36/40 w. BTW, I assume it's an inductor - the big ballast thingy
inside the fitting.

I see that a new company has started production under the Fitzgerald name,
and I'll call them on Monday, but I would have thought that things like
inductors are generic.

As said any 4' tube ballast is fine, just check that it'll physically
fit in your fitting.

NT

Picking up on Dave Plowman's comment, you will find that you can get
electronic systems off Ebay for around £5. One of my electronic ones
packed in and I got that advice on here, and found it absolutely
correct. Simple wire in - diagram on box and the lights worked
immediately.

Rob

As said any 4' tube ballast is fine, just check that it'll physically
fit in your fitting.

Picking up on Dave Plowman's comment, you will find that you can get
electronic systems off Ebay for around £5. One of my electronic ones
packed in and I got that advice on here, and found it absolutely
correct. Simple wire in - diagram on box and the lights worked
immediately.

I'm getting a magnetic ballast delivered on Tuesday for £8. Hopefully, it
will fit! If it does, it's the simple solution.

There's quite a bit of hype about LED replacement tubes. They cost about £30
but you don't need a ballast, so I was quite tempted. As the lights are on
quite a bit, one of these would pay for itself in around 3 years in saved
electricity, plus saving the planet for future generations!

In article ,
GB wrote:
There's quite a bit of hype about LED replacement tubes. They cost about
£30 but you don't need a ballast, so I was quite tempted. As the lights
are on quite a bit, one of these would pay for itself in around 3 years
in saved electricity, plus saving the planet for future generations!

I've not heard of those, but I'd treat such claims with caution.
Fluorescent lighting (properly done) is already pretty efficient. With a
known life of components. LEDs aren't long lasting when you push the
efficiency up.

--
*A backward poet writes inverse.*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
GB wrote:
There's quite a bit of hype about LED replacement tubes. They cost about
£30 but you don't need a ballast, so I was quite tempted. As the lights
are on quite a bit, one of these would pay for itself in around 3 years
in saved electricity, plus saving the planet for future generations!

I've not heard of those, but I'd treat such claims with caution.
Fluorescent lighting (properly done) is already pretty efficient. With a
known life of components. LEDs aren't long lasting when you push the
efficiency up.

I've seen a couple. They have a row of LEDs, so of course they can't
afford to use the ones with efficiency near that of a fluorescent
lamp, and they are a bilious blue-white colour in order to be able
to quote a half-way reasonable light output. I assumed it was running
with the ballast in the fitting - can't see any point in them if you
have to change the fitting - might as will install a proper LED light,
if that's what you wanted.

LEDs all face the same way, which might be useful if you would have
been better of using a reflector or aperture tube in the first place,
but not it you really wanted the widespread output of a tube.
But really, I struggle to see the point.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]