I think your tube should be running fine with the ballast that it is currently in the fixture because I have seen that numerous lamp specification sheets specify that a F4T5 fluorescent tube should run at a current somewhere around 160mA and your kill-a-watt meter shows a line current reading of roughly 160mA. This value makes sense because the line current from a simple series choke ballast without a power factor correction capacitor is exactly the same as the lamp current.
I still am slightly concerned because this fixture draws 11 watts with only a 4 watt lamp. I've tried running F6T5 and F8T5 bulbs on this ballast and the ballast runs much cooler than with F4T5's and total power consumption is similar among all 3 lamps.
Very true, this fixture has been used for maybe a year and there are already areas where the paint has degraded. I once measured the ballast's temperature and it was around 150 degrees, which seems absolutely insane
@@850lights6 Yeah, with these things, the lamp runs cooler than the ballast. I wouldn't be surprised if it ran hotter than my GE Bright Stik with it's resistive ballast.
Yeah, I have a few Bright Stiks myself and they indeed run cooler than the MS-104. By the way, your blacklight Bright Stik is pretty interesting, where did you find it?
I think your tube should be running fine with the ballast that it is currently in the fixture because I have seen that numerous lamp specification sheets specify that a F4T5 fluorescent tube should run at a current somewhere around 160mA and your kill-a-watt meter shows a line current reading of roughly 160mA. This value makes sense because the line current from a simple series choke ballast without a power factor correction capacitor is exactly the same as the lamp current.
I still am slightly concerned because this fixture draws 11 watts with only a 4 watt lamp. I've tried running F6T5 and F8T5 bulbs on this ballast and the ballast runs much cooler than with F4T5's and total power consumption is similar among all 3 lamps.
The ballast also sometimes gets so hot that it makes the paint discolor or in some cases MELT OFF!!
Very true, this fixture has been used for maybe a year and there are already areas where the paint has degraded. I once measured the ballast's temperature and it was around 150 degrees, which seems absolutely insane
@@850lights6 Yeah, with these things, the lamp runs cooler than the ballast. I wouldn't be surprised if it ran hotter than my GE Bright Stik with it's resistive ballast.
Yeah, I have a few Bright Stiks myself and they indeed run cooler than the MS-104. By the way, your blacklight Bright Stik is pretty interesting, where did you find it?
@@850lights6 I found it at a thrift store.
I really want to have this fluorescent lamp, where could you buy it?
I bought this on Light Bulb Depot, but they're pretty expensive there, sometimes they do appear on ebay but its very rare