How do you wire flourescent light blub to a ballast? And type of ballast do I get?

You need 4 15 W single tube ballasts or 2 15 W double ballasts. They have a diagram with them.

Be sure to wear eye protection. Tanning is dangerous.

If these 15 watt bulbs are the same length, same diameter, and have same pin style as regular 15 watt fluorescent bulbs, especially if they have markings "F15..." or "F15T8..." then I give them a 99.8-plus percent chance of being electrically compatible with regular 15 watt fluorescent bulbs, and working just fine in a regular fixture that takes such bulbs.

The usual "preheat" circuit having the usual 2-lead "preheat" ballast is in Sam Goldwasser's fluorescent lamp article/FAQ, available in

I have an older copy in:

Beware - suntanning is generally unhealthy. It ages skin and increases your chances of getting skin cancer. Even tanning UVA wavelengths have some skin cancer risk - UVB-free tanning is not cancer-risk-free.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Okay so in english, the "preheat" circuit is best cause the voltage of the ballast is more than the volt required for the bulb?

So a "preheat" circuit solves this problem?

I understand the diagram:

Power Switch +-----------+ Line 1 (H) o------/ ---------| Ballast |-----------+ +-----------+ | | .--------------------------. | Line 2 (N) o---------|- Fluorescent -|----+ | ) Tube ( | +---|- (bipin) -|----+ | '--------------------------' | | | | +-------------+ | | | Starter | | +----------| or starting |----------+ | switch | +-------------+

But how would the diagram look if I had 4 bulbs? Is the "preheat" circuit really necesarry? Can I do a simple parallel?

watts.

Can I setup the 4 ballasts in parallel, and the 4 bulbs in parallel for each ballast?

Not best, required. While some fluos can strike off voltage alone that is very unusual.

It makes the lamp work, yes. Preheat the filaments, then strike the lamp.

That means I have to have a wire from all 16 bulbs then back to the bulbs?

The ballast I saw in this picture shows no switch for the connection:

Homer J Simps>

You need 4 ballasts and 4 starters. Make 4 copies of the above circuit. Connect all Line1 points together and all Line2 points together.

Those bulbs are higher voltage lower current ones. The multi-bulb 17-watt-per-bulb ballast is usually an instant start ballast.

15 watt bulbs will be significantly underpowered, more so from these multi bulb electronic ballasts for 17 and 32 watt ones usually slightly underpowering those when full bulb count is used. Since the 15-watters were probably not designed for "instant start", they can easily suffer excessive wear from each start.

Do not connect ballasts together, and especially do not put fluorescent bulbs in parallel with each other. If fluorescent bulbs are in parallel with each other, all of the current will flow through just one bulb.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

If this ballast is a trigger start ballast rated for two 15-watt bulbs, you can use it for two 15-watt bulbs. Otherwise, do not use it.

The switch is added in series with the black wire. If you have more than one ballast, connect the black wires together and the white wires together.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

That's a quick start ballast - the heaters run all the time, but at different voltages.

So are you saying that I need a ballast that runs the heater at the same voltage?

Or are you say>

No.

You should look on WikiPedia, HowStuffWorks and similar sites for info on fluorescents. You can run them from resistors if you want, there are more than a few ways to do it but I work with what I can get and I would buy a ready to go ballast and starter (if required) that suits the lamps.

Are you using 4 of these or 16? Why not use 4 foot tanning fluos?

has a selection of lamps.

FWIW, I have a German tanning lamp which uses an arc bulb and will tan white skin in 3 second pulses. Max is 6 * 3 seconds - but you need to work up to that (as I found out).