Shop light ballasts?

Re: Shop light ballasts?

Jim Swank

>Electronic. But better yet, look for the ones that are marked cold weather starting. They had some about $15 per fixture at Lowes when I built my shop. About half didn't work, but after a few returns I had cold weather lights, and cheap. If you're buying the ballasts separately, as for "zero degree" ballasts and see what your supplier has.

Re: Shop light ballasts?

Mark Kauder, Phenix City, AL

>Ron,

I just bought some of both. The T-8s that don't work well in the cold, were about $18 at Home Depot. Then I also bought some of the ones that work to 0 degrees, and thy were about $10 more. I have about half and half, with them evenly spread out, so that I have some light while the shop heats up (I ain't work in the shop at 30 degrees). As my much older t-12s die, I will replace them with the more expensive one - as much as anything because of the lack of radio interference.

BTW, the T-8s fixtures/ballists seem to be more finicky about their bulbs. I had to swap out a few so that they would not flicker (the fixtures and bulbs were all new).

Mark

Re: Shop light ballasts?

Randy Johnson Connersville, IN

>As my much older t-12s die, I will replace them with the more expensive one - as much as anything because of the lack of radio interference.

Since restoring the building my shop is in went way over budget early on, when I started buying lights I bought the cheap ones. Two tube, 40 watt, under ten bucks at the local home center. When I wired the bulding I made drops for lights in a few places where I would need a little extra light only on occasion. At these locations I installed better quality fixtures that use the thin tubes. Guess which ones have to be turned off to use the remote for the dust collector? Yep, the more expensive ones.

Re: Shop light ballasts?

Rick in Colgate, Wi

>New years day I installed a new 4' T-8 in my garage and it has operated fine in temps as low as -2. Also installed 10 of them in my basement shop, its nice not to have the hum and flicker associated with fluorescent lights anymore. The lights I installed are from American Fluorescents and can use both T-8's and T-12 bulbs, all have electronic ballasts of course.

Rick

Re: Shop light ballasts?

Gary Camp - Bend, Oregon

>Hi Ron, where before Eugene? Virtually all T-8 fixtures use electronic ballasts. I have a t-8 ballast in my hand and the starting temp is 0 deg F for all except (3) F40T8, for those lamps it is 32 deg F. My experience has been that the ballasts that come with inexpensive lamps don�t last very long. When ever I have to replace a ballast, I replace it with a t-8. t12 and t8 lamps use the same lamp holder. I have had good luck with Advance intellivolt ballasts. Around 20 bucks (I am able to buy them through an electrical wholesale house however)

Glc

No affiliation with Advance or an any supplier

Re: Shop light ballasts?

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>After reading this and some previous threads on T12 vs. T8.. I have been stocking up on replacement T-12 4 ft. bulbs for my existing fixtures :)

Sometimes newer isn't better.

Norman