I put this fixture together from a Heath Zenith bucket light head, a replacement 12" refractor on clearance and a new Sylvania 175W DX lamp. It is mounted on a "arm" made out of a piece of 1 1/4" EMT bent to 90 degrees and wired to a switch instead of being controlled by the PC. The PC is still installed though but with the eye taped over so it acts like a shorting cap.
@ Andy; my mom wouldn't let me do that either. She just doesn't want to see the lights. If it's out of sight, she's fine with it but if it's in plain sight it's an issue. Even in my own bedroom.
@ Aaron; yeah my parents don't mind me installing fluorescents either. I've never installed one in a finished room though since I don't own a stud-finder. I doubt my parents would allow me to install a fluorescent light in my room though. My dad doesn't mind the lights, he just doesn't like the holes in the ceiling or wall. That's why it's always a pain when my mom wants to hang another picture fram on the wall. My mom on the other hand doesn't want to see street lights peroid and fluorescent lights aren't allowed upstairs (which i don't fully understand, seeing how our closet lights are F20T12/TS (mine converted to preheat).
Am I the only one with a F40T12 shoplight over my computer desk? (with a .8A ballast too).
I just had an idea...why not put some noisy HID light on a timer to wake you up in the morning? Someone should try that!
@ Andy; well i'm pretty sure my grandpa is the only one in the state (hell maybe the WORLD) that has a F90T17 desk light!
BTW, I swapped the sylvanias and the GEs between the RS and PH shoplights. The Sylvanias flicker int he preheat one too. I guess I got a bad pair since the other sylvanias i installed at my cousins' grandmothers garage work fine w/o any flicker. Needless to say, I switched the sylvanias and GEs back to their original spots, the second GE lamp going back in the corner as a spare. Now that I know it's not the RS ballast causing the flickering i want to keep it when i move out lol. I've noticed even after all this time the T12s have NO signs of end blackening while I was burning through T8s like crazy before.
@Mike, I've noticed that GE T8s tend to not last long and blacken quickly if you run on IS ballasts. I used to have a 2xF17T8 wrap in the kitchen that ate GE F17T8s...it also had a IS ballast. I've since replaced the light with a magnetic circline fixture though. Oh and wiremold is just this surface mount conduit stuff...useful for adding fixtures without cutting holes in your walls.
Yeah the EcoLux F32T8S blacken quickly on IS but still work for a long time. My bathroom light which is frequently switched does that...but it's still on it's original lamps a year later...my kitchen lights were installed at the same time and still have the original lamps with no blackening...
Even junk lamps I've had good luck with using programed start ballasts
Like those F32T8 /735 Alto 2 lamps I've been using Them in the kitchen light for 2 years they get maybe 10-20 starts per day and 5 hours use per day
Yeah I have to say PS is so much better than IS. You can tell if a store uses IS or PS because if it's IS the lamps are usually pretty black on the ends even after a few uses whereas the blackening on PS-controlled lamps isn't as severe except maybe at EOL. I still say lamps last the longest on magnetic RS. I think the strips in my great-aunt's garage still have the original GE red etched F35T12/CW lamps in them! (except one a threw out by mistake thinking it was dead. It turns out the lamp more than likely needed a simple wipe to get the dirt off it, seeing how filthy it was.) I don't really think the "boring plain white strip lights" came about until the 70s so the red etched GEs could be the original lamps. If not, they've lasted over 30 years of regular use! Maybe closer to 35 or 40 years!
The lamps in my bathroom light in Alaska finally died in February of this year and I stuck in some cool white F34T12 GE Watt-Misers...they actually work quite well on the electronic IS ballast, though one is blackening already...been in use every day sans this summer when nobody has been living there...
I also have fluorescent lights in my room in Alaska! They're preheat circline adapters and those Metalux/Gibson fixtures I scored in January from my school, one of which I have converted to 3-lamp!
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@ Aaron; yeah my parents don't mind me installing fluorescents either.
I just had an idea...why not put some noisy HID light on a timer to wake you up in the morning? Someone should try that!
@ Andy; well i'm pretty sure my grandpa is the only one in the state (hell maybe the WORLD) that has a F90T17 desk light!
BTW, I swapped the sylvanias and the GEs between the RS and PH shoplights. The Sylvanias flicker int he preheat one too.
Like those F32T8 /735 Alto 2 lamps I've been using Them in the kitchen light for 2 years they get maybe 10-20 starts per day and 5 hours use per day
BTW, joe what kind of fluoro is that in the pic?
I considered replacing this with the Powerlite gumball but the gumball weighed a ton with the glass refractor so the yardlight stays.
I also have fluorescent lights in my room in Alaska! They're preheat circline adapters and those Metalux/Gibson fixtures I scored in January from my school, one of which I have converted to 3-lamp!