Hot flouro ballast

Jan 30, 2009 8 Replies

Had a flouro turn itself off the other evening. Would not restart. New tube and starter a week or so earlier. Felt the ballast. It was hot. Left it off for for a couple of hours and it worked ok, and hasn't stopped. Question, how hot is the ballast likely to get. 32 watt .



Thanks ...Ian


"Ian"

** Bad contacts on the tube socket.
** They do get hot.

** Bad contacts on the tube socket behave intermittently.

** 50 or 60 degrees C above the local ambient.

Modern types run hotter then ones made decades ago did.

...... Phil

They often get dangerously hot. Lighting, especially fluoro lamps, is nearly always cheap and nasty.

had a 40watt ballast with 2 20watt tubes got very hot and shorted out, the 2 tubes exploded the fitting was new.

One can buy Australian made ballasts from electrical wholesalers for pocket change, likley significantly higher quality than the usual chinese garbage sold to the masses.

Thanks ZACK, that's allI need, the thing blowing up.

I remember one blowing up at home abt 40yrs ago' Black gunk out of it. The ballast lost it?

Put a new ballast in the fitting, even that one hot. Will check out another fitting when I get a chance.

Thanks Ian

Has anyone actually used these domestically?

colour balance? lumens?

Initially I'm not worried about replacing room light but want a string for night lights on moonless nights.

this happend back in 1980 the ballast was a dud, it was getting hotter than normal from new, thay do run hot but not to the point of burning anything. so normal can be hot to the touch

There has been a huge amount of discussion and experimentation regarding lumens and colour on various bicycle light newsgroups.

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