Hi,

You may remember me posting some questions about kitchen lighting and
also non maintained emergency lights. Here's a quick update, followed
by a new question about starters:

The bulkhead could be non-maintained or maintained depending whether
or not a link was fitted across a pair of terminals. I fitted a wire
to make the lamp maintained and found that the tube was flickering and
obviously needed replacing. I don't know whether:
1. the dying tube killed the battery
2. the dying battery killed the tube
3. the tube and battery dying were entirely independent and
coincidental

I never got any further at diagnosing the problem, due to a lack of
time and round tuits.

I had an identical unit still boxed that SWMBO would not let me fit
above the stairs for aesthetic reasons, so I simply fitted that
instead.

As for the charging LED getting brighter, that was an embarrassing red
herring, which I wish I had not mentioned! The new unit's led is just
as bright. I think because the nights are darker, earlier, the led is
more noticeable than it was in the lighter summer nights.

Regarding the kitchen, in my limited experience of fluorescent tubes,
they tend to come with white starters that blink the tube a couple of
times before the tube strikes. I read somewhere - most likely here -
that this blinking wears the tube out, so in the past I have bought
electronic starters, which were green. These make the light go from
off to on in one go with no blinking.

Wickes sell this:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/162288

It claims to have a flicker-free start and although I cannot see it
mentioned on the web site now, I am sure it used to say that it had an
electronic starter. I am sure it says this on the box too.

The starter included is not the green starter that I am familiar with.
(Ok, the green is only the plastic body and they could use any colour
of plastic for that). This starter looks a bit like an RCD as it has a
little button on the top. It is branded Osram.

I looked on the Osram web site and it says it is a resettable circuit
breaker that trips when the tube dies. Rather than have the tube
blinking like a strobe, the breaker will trip.

The curious thing is that the Osram site says it is "almost like an
electronic starter", implying that it is not an electronic starter.
Possibly someone has pointed this out to Wickes, which is why their
online description has changed?

The starter is not living up to their claims and the tube does blink
each time I turn the light on. I put one of my green 100% electronic
starters in and the tube strikes first time but there is a hum before
it does so. I have never had a hum when using an electronic starter in
any other light before. So my reason for waffling on about all this is
to ask: will it be ok to use the "proper" electronic starter in this
light fitting or is the fact that it is humming telling me something
is not quite compatible?

I notice the first review for the 5' version:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/5ft-start-fl...r/invt/162287/

says that it does not include an electronic start and does not include
instructions (neither did mine), so I am not the only one in this
situation!

One last daft question: if the starter is Osram does this mean they
make the whole fitting, or is made by someone else and the only Osram
part is the starter?

The tube supplied is 3500K, which in earlier posts I said I did not
like but actually, I have got used to it.

TIA

On 02/12/2012 20:58, Fred wrote:


The starter is not living up to their claims and the tube does blink
each time I turn the light on. I put one of my green 100% electronic
starters in and the tube strikes first time but there is a hum before
it does so. I have never had a hum when using an electronic starter in
any other light before. So my reason for waffling on about all this is
to ask: will it be ok to use the "proper" electronic starter in this
light fitting or is the fact that it is humming telling me something
is not quite compatible?


This company does a instant start starter (0.3 seconds) that claims to
have circuits that protect when the tube dies.

The fitting comes on with a with a slight womfff noise from the fitting.
http://users.tpg.com.au/pschamb/light.html
http://www.tabelek.co.uk/datasheets/300C-Datasheet.pdf

The company also does non-flicker starters that take 1 to 2 seconds to
light the tube.
http://www.tabelek.co.uk/product-electronic-fluorescent-tube-starters.asp

See also
http://users.tpg.com.au/pschamb/light.html

--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On Sunday, December 2, 2012 8:58:37 PM UTC, Fred wrote:

or not a link was fitted across a pair of terminals. I fitted a wire
to make the lamp maintained and found that the tube was flickering and
obviously needed replacing.

probably, I wouldnt say obviously

Regarding the kitchen, in my limited experience of fluorescent tubes,
they tend to come with white starters that blink the tube a couple of
times before the tube strikes.

Electromagnetic ballasts do, electronic ballasts dont

I read somewhere - most likely here -
that this blinking wears the tube out, so in the past I have bought

Those neon starters do reduce tube life some. I used to prefer thermal starters, or even just a starting switch instead. I'm no fan of all that flicker & flash.

Its pretty easy to add an RC time delay to a relay to make it do the starting function with no flashing. It also won't keep trying to start a dead tube.


each time I turn the light on. I put one of my green 100% electronic
starters in and the tube strikes first time but there is a hum before
it does so.

Non-issue. Worry about something important.


NT

On Sun, 2 Dec 2012 22:00:45 -0000, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Well I have a double tube fitting and one side always did hum, presumably
from something loose in the choke. Are you saying it only hums on the
electronic starter, it could be that the clicking etc masks it.

The electronic starter works in other light fittings without humming,
but when I use it in this one, when I switch the lamp on I get a hum
and darkness for half a second and then the light comes on and the hum
stops. You could be right, it could be that the fitting hums with any
starter but the noise from blinking with the "traditional" starter
masks it.

On Mon, 3 Dec 2012 01:32:10 +0000, fred wrote:

I suppose an alternative to standards approved emergency lighting in a
non regulated environment is to have an emergency 12V circuit in the
house feeding a number of 12V LED downlighters. The emergency supply
could come from a trickle charged 12V SLA battery with a dropout relay
activating the emergency circuit and lights via the normally closed
contact. Add a status led somewhere for peace of mind.

Sounds a good idea, thanks.

On Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:59:08 +0000, alan
wrote:

The fitting comes on with a with a slight womfff noise from the fitting.
http://users.tpg.com.au/pschamb/light.html

Hi,

Thanks, that's a very interesting page.

The starter supplied with my Wickes fitting is the fifth one on that
page: the osram with the reset button. The web site had the same
experience that I and the reviewer at Wickes did: that it is not
electronic and it does blink the lamp to start it.

My electronic starter is the one immediately below it, or something
very similar.

It's interesting that the author says at the bottom of the page, as
did you in your post, that they make a noise before the light switches
on, so it must be normal.

Thanks again.

On Tue, 4 Dec 2012 17:51:37 -0800 (PST), wrote:


Non-issue. Worry about something important.

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm not an expert in lights, so I didn't
know. I'll find something else to worry about

On Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:06:54 +0000, Fred wrote:

The starter supplied with my Wickes fitting is the fifth one on that
page: the osram with the reset button.

I know these as a "Rheo-Starter".

AFAIK it's a standard starter, with an extra bimetallic temperature sensitive
thing onna button. If the tube doesn't start in certain time, due to the
strater, ballast, or tube being bad, the bimetallic thing heats up and it stops
trying to start the fitting. I think the button needs pressing to reset it once
it has tripped.

I just replaced a tube in a flickering fitting. Worked fine when I tried it
(though the ballast was too hot to touch), but several days of flickering had
apparently killed the starter as well: the new bulb was flickering, ends black,
two days later. Another tube and also new starter later and it's sorted. That's
what the button is supposed to prevent...



Thomas Prufer