This is yours now? Sweet! Good luck getting lamps for it. GE no longer makes them and nobody on the LG seems to want to help out others if they get lamps cheap. They either keep them or sell them for full price even if they got 'em cheap. I might never get lamps for my two fixtures because the price of the lamps is just asinine. I can't afford a case.
Yeah I am in a pinch too, these 4 lamps are my only working ones, one has a damaged lead in wire and the other a broken cathode..locating lamps has been near impossible for me too, even at $300 id buy a case of 12
Yeah I have enough lamps to get the fixtures going (my late grandpa bought two spares and each of the two fixtures have one working lamp). 300 bucks? That's 25 bucks a lamp! You can get 120 F40T12s for that price! I won't spend more than 15 bucks a lamp ($180/case) so i better keep dreaming. I just don't have the cash to blow on bulbs. The fact that they're T17s means nothing to me. Sure i like the quality of the light but they're energy pigs, they only last 9000 hours, and they take forever to preheat. No reason for them to be so darn expensive. Bottom line is that they're "just light bulbs".
The ones in this fixture start up quickly, a lot quicker than the westy ballast does, and one lamp however is a bit slow, the starter sticks for 6-10 seconds
ahh so you have another fixture too? Nice! Yeah my grandpa's T17 does nothing for about five seconds then the ends glow and the lamp comes on with no flicker. You get a nice satisfying PING from the starter though. I think the ballast might be GE but it's a guess. For some reason i feel like it's a GE lol. The starter is a Sylvania with both the triangle etch and the SYLVANIA etch.
Maybe a slow starter but when i bought about a dozen T17 starters i tested them in his fixture (GE Watchdog, standard GE, and Sylvania) and they all started very slow, some taking nearly 30 seconds! I think they just take long to preheat in general since they're such large lamps. F40s tend to instant start for me. I find the 14-20W lamps to be the most blink-happy.
Yeah not sure. The fixture is a two-lamp louvered fixture with one lamp and one starter so could the fact that there's only one lamp slow the existing lamp from starting? In a year or so I'm going to replace it with a 2X F32T8 shoplite.
Yeah I'm getting that one and an indentical fixture from my great-aunt. I got plenty of starters. I have i think close to a dozen and manual reset starters are like mercedes benz, they don't die lol. All I need is to find a case of lamps and I'm good. When I'm desperate for lamps after the existing ones die I'll probably break down and cough up the cash for the lamps but it kills me to spend so much on lamps even if they're T17s. From what i hear, the quality of the GE lamps hasn't been good and recently they pulled the plug on their T17 lamps altogether so the cost of the lamps is only going to go up now.
Sorry, what I was saying has zero to do with that Its just $300 in lamps is WOW, I am just happy like the song that I am not into this. I was just saying I like HO because I don't have to blow $. Hope you are all keep'n all this in EMP proof'n.
Yeah recent years these lamps have been hard to find, I wish i would have bought lamps back when they were cheaper, ive seen lamps for as much as $50 ea so $12 ea isn't bad at all
I like HO too! I recently got 4 Phllips ultralume 3500K lamps
As far as I know, EMPs are damging to "sensitive electronics" (meaning stuff with circuit boards like electronic ballasts, computers and other "sensitive electronics) Lighting strikes are the stongest natural EMPs so unless your lights get struck my lightning they're safe (and if that happens you'll be lucky to have anything left of the light lol) Apparently there's man-made EMP weapons too.
But the whole EMP thing is really not that serious of an issue. It's not like an EMP is going to appear out and nowhere and target your electronics. Just don't leave your lights out when there's lightning lol.
If GE and others had kept advancing their T17s like they did with T12s (like advancing the electrode design and phosphor type) then T17s would have probably become much more efficient and would have lasted mught longer than 9000 hours but they didn't do that. the T17s GE made last year were the same T17s they made back in the 40s and 50s just with minor cosmetic differences and probably less mercury. But now GE stopped making them so these lamps are going to be impossible to find very soon.
No, It takes out the power grid too. They come from the sun. EMP, last time one hit it lit the telegraph wires on fire as far as I know 50/50 it could cause a massive surge and kill the ballast I have been study'n this for 5 years now and if one hits we will have no power for 5 to 6 years That must mean it KILLS all electrical things. It KILLS all transformers so I would say it kills all ballast that have power to them at the too best hope it is off.
Sounds like a slow starter!
I like HO too! I recently got 4 Phllips ultralume 3500K lamps
But the whole EMP thing is really not that serious of an issue. It's not like an EMP is going to appear out and nowhere and target your electronics. Just don't leave your lights out when there's lightning lol.
If GE and others had kept advancing their T17s like they did with T12s (like advancing the electrode design and phosphor type) then T17s would have probably become much more efficient and would have lasted mught longer than 9000 hours but they didn't do that. the T17s GE made last year were the same T17s they made back in the 40s and 50s just with minor cosmetic differences and probably less mercury. But now GE stopped making them so these lamps are going to be impossible to find very soon.