This has been up since mid-August but was cordless until today. i wanted to fuse it before I use it (hmm that's got a cool ring to it lol). This thing is very bright. This is what full power looks like!
Don't know. BTW, this is the one from my grandpa's shop, not my aunt's and uncle's basement. There are three preheaters left in their basement and i have no idea when they're coming down. There's also the F20 preheater too.
LOL yeah my Dad thinks I'm crazy when I bring home more lamps with blackened ends but I think he secretly encourages it LOL. Let's just say there's no nonworking lights around here!
It's not the lights themselves that bother my mom. She's a neat freak and can't stand any clutter and, well, there's really no way to "neatly" collect lights. Everything is stored pretty neatly but lights aren't very space-efficient and there's always space between them that is useless. It's not like bricks where they stack neatly on top of one another and side-by-side and no empty space between them. There are no dead lights here either. I maintain all the lights in my house and at my dad's parents' and sisters house (well, my grandma and aunt's house since my dad's dad passed away) unless my aunt does it. I visit every Friday so if she doesn't fix it by then I do. And i maintain the lights at my great-aunt's house. I maintain my grandpa's shop lighting and his basement lighting.
Basically I maintain all the fluorescent lighting in my family except for the closet lights at my cousin's house. They've never needed to fix their closet lights but I don't think my uncle would let me touch his lights. My cousin's grandma's house, which is actually attached to their house (it's a duplex house, with my cousins' part added on in the mid-2000s) has fluorescents that I maintain (the basement and garage ones) but my cousins' grandma (I'll call her by her name, Gerri, from now on) hasn't been herself lately. My cousin said "she's not right in the head anymore" so that's rather unfortunate. She's been very lonely since her husband Steve passed away a few years back. My aunt is her only living child (she had a son who passed away a long long time ago due to an enlarged heart i think?) and even though they live right next door (well technically in the same house) she's still lonely. She's been smoking in the house the past year, something she has never done before. And she's lost a lot of weight. She's rail-thin now.
Yeah they're still going! I think part of the electrode on one of the lamps (it was the right-hand lamp in this pic, on the end facing away from the pic, toward the overhead garage door) was just burning off or something. You can sorta see the electrodes through the phosphors when the lamp is lit. I tried getting a pic but the brightness of the lamp drowns out the faint image of the electrode. I'll keep this going until the lamp dies, then I'll spot replace the DoIt lamp with a GE F40T12 RESIDENTIAL LIGHT, since I only have one of those lamps (or I'll use another lamp that I only have one of, though I will match the 4100K color temperature and want to match the end caps if possible, as DoIt lamps were made by GE like Ace lamps).
At the moment, I have three lamps near EOL: the right-hand one in this pic, the F30T12/CW Sylvania in the laundry room, and the GE F32T8/SPX35, also in the laundry room. So far they haven't died yet. The Sylvania F30T12/CW seems to come in and out of rectification. It will rectify for a few days to a week and then one time I'll turn it on and it'll flash purple and then not rectify for a while. The electrode must be re-welding itself to the support and then breaking again and just going in a vicious cycle lol. The thing will probably keep working past the time I move out lol.
For me I've had a Sylvania F40/Daylight Full Spectrum that's looked like it's had it since I got it but it still works, although it's on a shunted ballast. Also I have a pair of old-etch GE F40C50s nearing EOL, as well as a couple 34w cool white Watt-Misers.
Same here, all heavily used already! I can get a pretty much endless supply from my school since we often (but not always) replace both tubes in a fixture. (Yes, I have a deal with one of the maintenance guys). (He's the only one I've really discussed lighting with at length in person). He's not into collecting, but we can still groan about changing ballasts high up on a ladder, or lamps not lasting very long, etc.
One time we had a teacher complaining a light (probably Universal ballast I bet) was buzzing too loud (It was indeed very noisy) and they insisted we change a bulb, even though it worked. It was actually quieter! I got a nice May 1991 GE F40C50 out of the deal though
Hmm I turned on this light today and the lamp in question (on the right) flashed a few times, as if it was EOL, and then finally came to life. That lamp on the right has always had a longer preheat time since the starter is slower. Neither of the starters (which were the same ones installed when I removed the light) are blink-happy. One pretty much instant-starts (after a second or two delay, much like programmed start) and the other on the right usually comes on after 5-10 seconds. No blinking or flickering usually, though this past time it blinked/flashed a few times before staying lit. I guess it's getting closer to the end...
As of the past couple of days, the F30T12/CW Sylvania is not in rectification mode; it lights normally, though the end is pretty black from sputtering. And as for the GE SPX35 F32T8, the "starting dim and flickery in the middle" syndrome hasn't worsened. Despite the extreme blackening, I actually expect the GE T8s to keep going for quite a while. I'm impressed that they've lasted this long to be honest. I guess GE's T8s were still good back in 2006. Not sure about current EcoLux T8s since the only new T8s I've bought have been Philips and Sylvania. The Philips lamps start off a tiny bit dimmer over the whole lamp whereas the Sylvanias start dim and flickery in the middle every time just like most of their T12s do and then they warm up. When the Sylvanias warm up they're actually brighter than the GEs, though the GEs have a lot more use on them, so they've probably just lost lumens over time. The Philips lamps do not start flickery or dim in the center. They're the same brightness overall, which I like, but they're prone to going mercury starved. The Sylvania T8s seem to not last too long on programmed start, so I can imagine they're even worse on instant-start. The ones at my school are starting to fail in growing numbers in the main building. I know of maybe between six to ten lamps out. The ones that go out in classrooms usually get fixed, because teachers probably report them. They only fix lights that get reported. The Medical Pathways teacher in the votech building had complained about the hallway lights outside her room having a lot of dead bulbs (its on the upper level, actually right above my construction shop) and they replaced the dead tubes in the three or four troffers in front of their classroom, but that's it. The rest of the fixtures have failing lamps lol.
They have replaced a few lamps on the upper level of the votech building, I guess when an entire fixture goes out. But they haven't relamped any lights in the lower level where my shop is, except for the bathroom, because all six lamps were dead (one ballast was and still is bad, so that left three possible working ones, and two died within a month of each other). They relamped the two dead lamps in the working troffer (and even put new lamps in the dead troffer for whatever reason) but left the one good GE lamp, and then literally a couple days later the GE they left had died, so now the only working troffer has a dead lamp- AGAIN! I kinda wish they had just relamped that one too. Kinda glad its dead now though since I didn't like having the center lamp and one of the outside lamps 4100K and having the other outside lamp 3500K. Looked stupid IMO.
So far, no more lamps have died in the parabolic troffers in the lower level hallway, so I think I'm going to just put the bug in the secretary's ear when I finally remember to do so. I just want the lights fixed now. I wonder if an electronic ballast is effected by a dead lamp that's left in for a long time?
It might be getting closer to the end, or maybe just a freak thing.
Yeah I wonder how long that F30 will last?
And yeah, that GE SPX35 is getting close to the end then for sure. Time to buy a replacement lamp and have it ready LOL. (Or do you have any spare F32T8 lamps?)
The Sylvanias don't last long on IS in frequently-switched fixtures, they blacken fast and die soon. The GEs seem better in that regard. No idea about Philips since I haven't used them. In my house I think as the T8 lamps die I'll just stick T12s in since they fit and work fine, and it will help avoid confusion when I leave for college from my dad inadvertently sticking a T8 in a rapid start T12 fixture. Same reason why I'm using up spare 34 watt tubes: they won't cook any incompatible ballasts. (Though several of those are in my room).
Ugh fixing lights that get reported only...in my school they won't do the commons/library area, (high sloped ceiling with the same Metalux/Gibson 1X4 surface-mount troffers I have; mine came from that very room). In one part more than half the lamps are dead but I know for fact the philosophy is let it get totally dark in there then totally group relamp so we don't have do do it again for a few years LOL). I'm part of that club too and I HATE heights so same here, as much as I hate seeing dead lamps (especially flickey EOL F40/F34/RS action) I'd wait until it's pitch black (or nearly so; one fixture working) then relamp the whole shebang at once. Especially since you can't get the CW and SP41 colors anymore; right now we're finishing off a case of Sylvania Daylight Full Spectrum then somebody bought a case of Sylvania F40/CWX. Neither of which match CW! But this is one of those "If it fits and lights up properly it's fine" situations, which I actually don't mind...seeing random colors/vintages/wattages of lamps makes things interesting. There's some pre-Ecolux GE Watt-Misers of multiple generations, some "True Value" and "Westpointe" (GE-made in both cases) F40SP41s, some Sylvania Cool White Plus (2009, not flickering at startup), some Norelco F40CWs that were sitting there NOS and I didn't have anything to trade so I stuck many of them in myself LOL, a few warm white Mainlighters I gave them, Sylvania Daylight Full Spectrum, at least one GE meatball-etch F40CW, and maybe still some Ace SP41s..and who knows what else! All running on 70s-80s Universal and Advance ballasts (Place was built in '79 and '85) except for a few .73a Advance and MagneTek replacements where needed. So yeah, pretty neat overall if you ask me...not many places you listen to the buzzing of magnetic ballasts all day or walk in on a cold morning when the heat is just kicking in and it's 40 degrees in there, flip the switch, and see 34 watt lamps flickering until they warm up. Same for the first day or two after a lamp dies: both lamps in a fixture wildly flickering dimly.
I have a few F32T8 lamps laying around (two NOS full-mercury F32T8 Philips /735s, which I am keeping NOS until I decide to put my magnetic Advance F32T8/RS ballast into use; and I also have one more GE F32T8/SPX35 from school, which I would like to keep aside in the collection). When the time comes and one of the lamps EOLs, I will probably move the dead lamp to the middle (so the fixture looks more symmetrical) and keep the dead lamp in there until another one dies, in which case i'll buy a pair of lamps for it. Even with two lamps in it, it's enough light. Even one lamp is enough to see by, but it's rather dim.
Yeah the Sylvanias at my school are on programmed start (both frequently and infrequently switched applications, though the failures seem to be on infrequently-switched fixtures). Ugh you just killed a little piece inside of me when you said you're going to use T12s on T8 ballasts. I'm going to have to revoke your Lighting Enthusiast's License (just kidding lol). You're going to get a lot less light from the T12s since they'll be underdriven and they'll probably die rather quickly. You said that you might be ordering a few T8 ballasts, why not just order electronic T12 ballasts? That way you can use T12s and actually have good light output and if you ever decide you want to use T8s again, the T8s will be overdriven as if they were HO.
Ah my library/media center is lit with 175W MH uplights mounted on the walls. The place is lit like a cave, but hey, at least it's HID. The only working and maintained HIDs left on the entire campus! Some parts are lit with suspended louvered fixtures with F32T8s and the computer labs connected to the library use F32T8 parabolic troffers (with smaller rectangular cells in comparison to the one I got from the votech building) with old Philips Altos in them and many are dead. The ceiling is pretty tall, so not sure how they'd maintain them. Must need a really tall ladder or a scissor lift.
Wow I've never heard of them shutting off the heat in a school overnight! I guess your school is a very small few-room complex? Here there's no AC in the schools, but the heat runs all winter. They turn it down over vacation and on weekends and stuff but they don't shut it off. I hate turning on 34W lamps in the cold personally. I don't mind if the lamps come on a little dim and brighten up, but I hate the flickering. Gives me a headache. Not something I want to deal with lol. Not as bad when the lamps are behind diffusers but still annoying lol. You can usually tell 34W lamps from 40W lamps because 34W lamps have a dingy color to them for some reason. You know what I'm talking about? The /CW ones are yellowish, the CWX ones are more purplish, etc.
Or maybe I'll buy T12 ballasts...but I'm saying on the remaining T8 ones I'll start using T12s I think. It might kill you even more to know the lamps that would be used would probably be '79 warm white Mainlighters, but I have dozens of them! Going T12 keeps things simpler. On the boat though all the fluorescents except one are T8 and the one T12 single-lamper is Advance ERS...so there I think I'll use nothing but T8s if it's still in my life by the time any lamps crap out (They're all from 2013).
Well you kinda have to shut the heat off if you don't have constant/overnight power! But yeah you can tell 34w lamps from 40w really easily by their dingy color, even behind diffusers.
Login
Cool to see it up and working! Any ideas when the other two ones in that basement are coming home with you?
Basically I maintain all the fluorescent lighting in my family except for the closet lights at my cousin's house. They've never needed to fix their closet lights but I don't think my uncle would let me touch his lights. My cousin's grandma's house, which is actually attached to their house (it's a duplex house, with my cousins' part added on in the mid-2000s) has fluorescents that I maintain (the basement and garage ones) but my cousins' grandma (I'll call her by her name, Gerri, from now on) hasn't been herself lately. My cousin said "she's not right in the head anymore" so that's rather unfortunate. She's been very lonely since her husband Steve passed away a few years back. My aunt is her only living child (she had a son who passed away a long long time ago due to an enlarged heart i think?) and even though they live right next door (well technically in the same house) she's still lonely. She's been smoking in the house the past year, something she has never done before. And she's lost a lot of weight. She's rail-thin now.
At the moment, I have three lamps near EOL: the right-hand one in this pic, the F30T12/CW Sylvania in the laundry room, and the GE F32T8/SPX35, also in the laundry room. So far they haven't died yet. The Sylvania F30T12/CW seems to come in and out of rectification. It will rectify for a few days to a week and then one time I'll turn it on and it'll flash purple and then not rectify for a while. The electrode must be re-welding itself to the support and then breaking again and just going in a vicious cycle lol. The thing will probably keep working past the time I move out lol.
One time we had a teacher complaining a light (probably Universal ballast I bet) was buzzing too loud (It was indeed very noisy) and they insisted we change a bulb, even though it worked. It was actually quieter! I got a nice May 1991 GE F40C50 out of the deal though
As of the past couple of days, the F30T12/CW Sylvania is not in rectification mode; it lights normally, though the end is pretty black from sputtering. And as for the GE SPX35 F32T8, the "starting dim and flickery in the middle" syndrome hasn't worsened. Despite the extreme blackening, I actually expect the GE T8s to keep going for quite a while. I'm impressed that they've lasted this long to be honest. I guess GE's T8s were still good back in 2006. Not sure about current EcoLux T8s since the only new T8s I've bought have been Philips and Sylvania. The Philips lamps start off a tiny bit dimmer over the whole lamp whereas the Sylvanias start dim and flickery in the middle every time just like most of their T12s do and then they warm up. When the Sylvanias warm up they're actually brighter than the GEs, though the GEs have a lot more use on them, so they've probably just lost lumens over time. The Philips lamps do not start flickery or dim in the center. They're the same brightness overall, which I like, but they're prone to going mercury starved. The Sylvania T8s seem to not last too long on programmed start, so I can imagine they're even worse on instant-start. The ones at my school are starting to fail in growing numbers in the main building. I know of maybe between six to ten lamps out. The ones that go out in classrooms usually get fixed, because teachers probably report them. They only fix lights that get reported. The Medical Pathways teacher in the votech building had complained about the hallway lights outside her room having a lot of dead bulbs (its on the upper level, actually right above my construction shop) and they replaced the dead tubes in the three or four troffers in front of their classroom, but that's it. The rest of the fixtures have failing lamps lol.
They have replaced a few lamps on the upper level of the votech building, I guess when an entire fixture goes out. But they haven't relamped any lights in the lower level where my shop is, except for the bathroom, because all six lamps were dead (one ballast was and still is bad, so that left three possible working ones, and two died within a month of each other). They relamped the two dead lamps in the working troffer (and even put new lamps in the dead troffer for whatever reason) but left the one good GE lamp, and then literally a couple days later the GE they left had died, so now the only working troffer has a dead lamp- AGAIN! I kinda wish they had just relamped that one too. Kinda glad its dead now though since I didn't like having the center lamp and one of the outside lamps 4100K and having the other outside lamp 3500K. Looked stupid IMO.
So far, no more lamps have died in the parabolic troffers in the lower level hallway, so I think I'm going to just put the bug in the secretary's ear when I finally remember to do so. I just want the lights fixed now. I wonder if an electronic ballast is effected by a dead lamp that's left in for a long time?
Yeah I wonder how long that F30 will last?
And yeah, that GE SPX35 is getting close to the end then for sure. Time to buy a replacement lamp and have it ready LOL. (Or do you have any spare F32T8 lamps?)
The Sylvanias don't last long on IS in frequently-switched fixtures, they blacken fast and die soon. The GEs seem better in that regard. No idea about Philips since I haven't used them. In my house I think as the T8 lamps die I'll just stick T12s in since they fit and work fine, and it will help avoid confusion when I leave for college from my dad inadvertently sticking a T8 in a rapid start T12 fixture. Same reason why I'm using up spare 34 watt tubes: they won't cook any incompatible ballasts. (Though several of those are in my room).
Ugh fixing lights that get reported only...in my school they won't do the commons/library area, (high sloped ceiling with the same Metalux/Gibson 1X4 surface-mount troffers I have; mine came from that very room). In one part more than half the lamps are dead but I know for fact the philosophy is let it get totally dark in there then totally group relamp so we don't have do do it again for a few years LOL). I'm part of that club too and I HATE heights so same here, as much as I hate seeing dead lamps (especially flickey EOL F40/F34/RS action) I'd wait until it's pitch black (or nearly so; one fixture working) then relamp the whole shebang at once. Especially since you can't get the CW and SP41 colors anymore; right now we're finishing off a case of Sylvania Daylight Full Spectrum then somebody bought a case of Sylvania F40/CWX. Neither of which match CW!
Yeah the Sylvanias at my school are on programmed start (both frequently and infrequently switched applications, though the failures seem to be on infrequently-switched fixtures). Ugh you just killed a little piece inside of me when you said you're going to use T12s on T8 ballasts. I'm going to have to revoke your Lighting Enthusiast's License
Ah my library/media center is lit with 175W MH uplights mounted on the walls. The place is lit like a cave, but hey, at least it's HID. The only working and maintained HIDs left on the entire campus! Some parts are lit with suspended louvered fixtures with F32T8s and the computer labs connected to the library use F32T8 parabolic troffers (with smaller rectangular cells in comparison to the one I got from the votech building) with old Philips Altos in them and many are dead. The ceiling is pretty tall, so not sure how they'd maintain them. Must need a really tall ladder or a scissor lift.
Wow I've never heard of them shutting off the heat in a school overnight! I guess your school is a very small few-room complex? Here there's no AC in the schools, but the heat runs all winter. They turn it down over vacation and on weekends and stuff but they don't shut it off. I hate turning on 34W lamps in the cold personally. I don't mind if the lamps come on a little dim and brighten up, but I hate the flickering. Gives me a headache. Not something I want to deal with lol. Not as bad when the lamps are behind diffusers but still annoying lol. You can usually tell 34W lamps from 40W lamps because 34W lamps have a dingy color to them for some reason. You know what I'm talking about? The /CW ones are yellowish, the CWX ones are more purplish, etc.
Well you kinda have to shut the heat off if you don't have constant/overnight power! But yeah you can tell 34w lamps from 40w really easily by their dingy color, even behind diffusers.