Ballast from SADelite lamp (Robertson Transformer Company)
This is the ballast from the 'new' lamp I bought on eBay.
I am unaffected by SADD but I do like interesting lamps & fixtures. This one has an all metal body unlike the Verilux one I used to have, which was plastic
I am using the old tubes that I had laying around from Verilux which are almost EOL but still work.
I could do with something like this, I do suffer from SAD quite badly at times, especially in the winter when it can get dark not long after 4pm this far north
The commercially available lamps are silly prices though, I have a desk lamp which uses an 11W PL tube, so I just put a high colour temperature (6500K) tube in that, and it works fine, although a properly designed lamp would obviously be better.
I have always wondered, why do US ballasts have all those wires poking out of them..? Here, they have terminal blocks where you fasten the connecting wires with screws, it makes for a much neater installation IMHO.
Yeah in the part of the US I live in it gets dark before 4:30PM now. really makes the night go by slowly but I can deal with it.
Do you have Daylight Savings Time (DST) where you are?
Anything medical related means the price is automatically inflated no matter what it actually is
I can't tell you why US ballasts have wires sticking out of them, but some of the more expensive or 'premium' ballasts have wire traps like this or this
Yes, I've seen those wire traps, electronic ballasts tend to have them, but the good old magnetic ones here have what we call 'choc blocks' supposedly because they resemble slabs of chocolate, not sure I'd want to eat them though
Yes we do have daylight savings, here they call it British Summer Time (BST) which is one hour ahead of GMT. They keep trying to get us to adopt EU time, which is one hour ahead of GMT in the winter and 2 hours ahead in the summer, but stuff that, the UK is the home of GMT and we like it..! If I had my way we'd stay at GMT all year round
Yeah, I think more niche electronic ballasts such as T5, dimming and PL ballasts have those wire trap style connectors on them.
Advance briefly had a line of magnetic ballasts with removable wires in the late 80s and early 90s which was sold in addition to the standard line with wires attached to them. They never really caught on here due to the additional cost and due to quality issues. I believe the connectors used was low quality and there were problems with some of the wires not making proper contact. Instead of a choc block or a wire trap, the ballasts has a molex style connector which the harness plugged in to.
Ontario Canada has daylight savings too and largely follows the US as to when the clocks are set ahead and back. Daylight savings time here is 4 hours behind GMT and winter time or standard time is 5 hours behind GMT. Personally I wish that we could just stay at 4 hours behind GMT year round. During the late fall and winter months it gets dark really early here.
@joe_347V I remember seeing those ballasts before but I never knew the connector was removable. Seems like a good idea for quick ballast changes, too bad the idea was poorly executed
I too think Daylight Savings Time (DST) should be done away with an just stick to GMT -4
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The commercially available lamps are silly prices though, I have a desk lamp which uses an 11W PL tube, so I just put a high colour temperature (6500K) tube in that, and it works fine, although a properly designed lamp would obviously be better.
I have always wondered, why do US ballasts have all those wires poking out of them..? Here, they have terminal blocks where you fasten the connecting wires with screws, it makes for a much neater installation IMHO.
Do you have Daylight Savings Time (DST) where you are?
Anything medical related means the price is automatically inflated no matter what it actually is
I can't tell you why US ballasts have wires sticking out of them, but some of the more expensive or 'premium' ballasts have wire traps like this or this
Yes we do have daylight savings, here they call it British Summer Time (BST) which is one hour ahead of GMT. They keep trying to get us to adopt EU time, which is one hour ahead of GMT in the winter and 2 hours ahead in the summer, but stuff that, the UK is the home of GMT and we like it..! If I had my way we'd stay at GMT all year round
Advance briefly had a line of magnetic ballasts with removable wires in the late 80s and early 90s which was sold in addition to the standard line with wires attached to them. They never really caught on here due to the additional cost and due to quality issues. I believe the connectors used was low quality and there were problems with some of the wires not making proper contact. Instead of a choc block or a wire trap, the ballasts has a molex style connector which the harness plugged in to.
Ontario Canada has daylight savings too and largely follows the US as to when the clocks are set ahead and back. Daylight savings time here is 4 hours behind GMT and winter time or standard time is 5 hours behind GMT. Personally I wish that we could just stay at 4 hours behind GMT year round. During the late fall and winter months it gets dark really early here.
I too think Daylight Savings Time (DST) should be done away with an just stick to GMT -4