Wow, that’s an incredible collection you’ve got going there! I’ve got a few 2 foot and under preheat fixtures, but as far as the 4 foot stuff goes, I only have a single shop light that is actually preheat (Sylvania). You can see it under my shorts videos. I have two other shop lights from the same era if not earlier, but unfortunately, both of them are gutted and they have the GE push in lamp sockets one of which the set on it even those are trashed so I will have to retrofit tombstones. When I eventually get around to fixing those up, preheat ballast seem to be unobtainoum so they will probably be fit with rapid start ballasts. My day to day lighting in my workshop that I actually use are my own custom conversion F32T8 rapid start shop lights that I converted from electronic as I was able to score a good deal on the somewhat hard to find 32 watt rapid ballasts. Thanks for sharing!
Wow. So cool to see a F40 instant start in action alongside what I assume is a standard rapid start F40 when you mentioned a modern sylvania GTE? Never heard of an 8 foot preheat high output. I always thought 8 foot only comes in instant start single pin, high output or very high output, the latter two of which are actually rapid start at 800mA or 1500mA vs the standard 430mA. Also wondering would any harm be done if you put a HO lamp in a VHO ballasted fixture, or are the lamps the same with respect to arc voltage. Because I noticed online that VHO lamps are now nearly impossible to find, whereas HO lamps are readily available even at the Lowe's home improvement 1 mile from my house. You know, just in case you had a older VHO fixture and wanted to keep it running.
As far as the preheat HO goes it was originally RS 110w but I just converted it to preheat just like you would any regular 2 lamp rapid start ballast by wiring it differently and adding starter sockets. Had to use 125w tanning bed starters on it for it to light reliably tho. Ballast seems to run pretty cool too. And the whole VHO/HO debate.. it all depends on who you talk to but as far as I understand if you put an HO on a VHO fixture the lamp will live a considerably shorter life of around 6-900 hours. I've seen it done and if you have a stockpile of lamps and don't mind relamping it every 600 ish hours it doesn't seem to hurt the ballast.. and I've actually seen that done in old whiteway gas station fluorescent street light fixtures.. and other than the decreased life span I'd say it works good enough to get you by if you need light. That's just my opinion tho
Some of those ballasts will shock you with induction voltage. That's why it's important to ground them, I been shocked that way many times lol
Wow, that’s an incredible collection you’ve got going there! I’ve got a few 2 foot and under preheat fixtures, but as far as the 4 foot stuff goes, I only have a single shop light that is actually preheat (Sylvania). You can see it under my shorts videos. I have two other shop lights from the same era if not earlier, but unfortunately, both of them are gutted and they have the GE push in lamp sockets one of which the set on it even those are trashed so I will have to retrofit tombstones. When I eventually get around to fixing those up, preheat ballast seem to be unobtainoum so they will probably be fit with rapid start ballasts. My day to day lighting in my workshop that I actually use are my own custom conversion F32T8 rapid start shop lights that I converted from electronic as I was able to score a good deal on the somewhat hard to find 32 watt rapid ballasts. Thanks for sharing!
Wow. So cool to see a F40 instant start in action alongside what I assume is a standard rapid start F40 when you mentioned a modern sylvania GTE?
Never heard of an 8 foot preheat high output. I always thought 8 foot only comes in instant start single pin, high output or very high output, the latter two of which are actually rapid start at 800mA or 1500mA vs the standard 430mA.
Also wondering would any harm be done if you put a HO lamp in a VHO ballasted fixture, or are the lamps the same with respect to arc voltage. Because I noticed online that VHO lamps are now nearly impossible to find, whereas HO lamps are readily available even at the Lowe's home improvement 1 mile from my house. You know, just in case you had a older VHO fixture and wanted to keep it running.
As far as the preheat HO goes it was originally RS 110w but I just converted it to preheat just like you would any regular 2 lamp rapid start ballast by wiring it differently and adding starter sockets. Had to use 125w tanning bed starters on it for it to light reliably tho. Ballast seems to run pretty cool too.
And the whole VHO/HO debate.. it all depends on who you talk to but as far as I understand if you put an HO on a VHO fixture the lamp will live a considerably shorter life of around 6-900 hours. I've seen it done and if you have a stockpile of lamps and don't mind relamping it every 600 ish hours it doesn't seem to hurt the ballast.. and I've actually seen that done in old whiteway gas station fluorescent street light fixtures.. and other than the decreased life span I'd say it works good enough to get you by if you need light. That's just my opinion tho
What is the cool coil?