Here's a self-requested pic of the whole garage. LOL This shows a better view of how the lights are arranged and the tunnel-like or oversized hallway like appearance the garage has. Can you figure out which of the two tubes are Sylvania cool white deluxes? The other four are True Value (GE) standard F40/CW lamps.
Which lamp in the middle fixture? left or right? you close to finding one of the CWX lamps. There's one int he back fixture and the other is int he fixture you guessed. Can you tell which side though?
Yeah it's a pretty cool garage. You can see the sliced out piece of ceiling... that's because the lights were originally wired with romex but he didn't realize he had to wire them with EMT. This wasn't known until the garage was finished so rather than rip out the whole ceiling he went into the space between the ceiling and roof and installed EMT. Each light has it's own switch too. The switches are black and are the tough old-school commercial style switches with spring contacts (i believe) and have a black switchplate.
Originally, the garage was 1-car. you can see where the original garage ended (where there's a height change in the ceiling). The old part of the garage was completly redone though since it was too narrow so the whole garage is the same age, though that doesn't explain the difference in ceiling height...
You can also see a plank of wood stuck above the first light so it's level. The plank is bolted to the ceiling and the fixtures is drilled into the plank on that end. On the other end, it's simply drilled into the ceiling liek the other two lights.
The reflectors are in different conditions too. The first fixture closest to the door has a pretty soiled reflector (see the pic of the True Value lamp) while the one all the way in the back has a spotless reflector (see the Sylvania CWX pic). the one in the middle is in between.
No. The door is behind the pic. That other door was just put in incase a truck or something had to get in the back yard (such a case was when the huge sugar maple tree in the back needed to be taken down). It's not used on a regular basis though and the motor doesn't work.
With the idea that it won't catch the neighbor's house on fire I'm guessing?
What's the difference between regular drywall and fireproof drywall? I thought drywall was fire-resistant in general...
I know a lot about house construction, though; I wonder if he could use regular plastic vapor barrier under this?
Yeah Rhode Island's fire codes are very strict after the Station Nightclub Fire in 2003. It was the 10-year anniversary since the incident this week. Take a look on googel if you want to know a little more of it. Apparently some band set off fireworks inside the place and the place became engulfed in flames in minutes. Exactly 100 people died.
Maybe drywall is fireproof, but either way whatever he used was fireproof. What is vapor barrier?
Vapor barrier is the plastic sheeting that's used over insulation behind drywall...the room in your house with the 1-lamp preheater appears to have some on the exterior wall...
UPDATE: I opened up the spare one of these in the basement. It has a Therm-O-Matic 0.8A ballast from August 1973, though the label is the same as the two 1977 ballasts i have. It might be a replacement ballast but i think it's original since the wires aren't spliced. What's interesting is that the ballast wires are rubber yet the supply wires are cloth. I guess maybe the F40 fixtures replaced either preheat F40s or T17s? these are newer than i thought though. I firfured they'd be from the 60s.
these must have only been a few years old when they were removed then since they were removed in the 80s iirc...
LOL yeah every full-power ballast i've seen that works has been a therm-o-matic. maybe they do find me... They're built like tanks! The one in the fixture i opened in the basement had the older soft insulation like the one in my 1973 shoplite. the only difference was the newer styled label. I actually didn't stop to read the label (which was in perfect shape BTW) since i was really only concerned about the date stamp on the back. The two reflectors get taken off (or maybe you can open it without removing them...) and them you loosen a screw at each end and the cover to the ballast simply hinges down in two pieces like swinging doors at a market lol. The paint is in perfect shape too which further proves my idea of these only being in service for a short while before being removed and installed here. a light gray similar to what's used on street lights but a little bit darker. the reflectors are realy thin aluminum. They seem very fragile yet the hold up. the fixture itself is built to withstand being shot at lol. The light is about 30 pounds! Plus they have sweet plunger type bi-pin sockets which are uncommonly used in fixtures from what i've heard. these seem to be top-of-the-line fixtures!
So they're basically a slimline/HO socket but medium bipin instead of single pin or RDC then? I wonder if these would have to be shunted to work with T8 electronic IS?
Why do sockets have to be shunted when converting to T8 anyway? IS doesn't use the filaments at all doesn't it?
They should have to be shunted unless a shunted version is available. Those bipin plunger sockets cannot be retrofitted in regular fixtures that use twist-lock holders. The plunger sockets are deeper and a slightly longer fixture is needed for them to fit properly. That's why 4' HO lamps are shorter than 4' bipin lamps.
T8 instant start need shunted sockets to avoid hot spots in the end seals during operation. These hot spots might lead to vacuum loss (and sometimes lamps cracking and falling out) at EOL.
yeah they'd need to be shunted unless a programmed start ballast was used. Yeah HO, slimline, and standard bi-pin sockets can't be used in these fixtures. standard bit-pin are to thin and the lamps for slimline and HO are too short as Joe mentioned. thankfully these fixtures seem to be in real good shape and the pluger bi-pin sockets aren't impossible to come by...
You could probably make brackets to just fill in the empty space but the plunger sockets are SOOO cool! Plus they are still made so no need to convert to boring old tombstones lol.
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Yeah it's a pretty cool garage. You can see the sliced out piece of ceiling... that's because the lights were originally wired with romex but he didn't realize he had to wire them with EMT. This wasn't known until the garage was finished so rather than rip out the whole ceiling he went into the space between the ceiling and roof and installed EMT. Each light has it's own switch too. The switches are black and are the tough old-school commercial style switches with spring contacts (i believe) and have a black switchplate.
Originally, the garage was 1-car. you can see where the original garage ended (where there's a height change in the ceiling). The old part of the garage was completly redone though since it was too narrow so the whole garage is the same age, though that doesn't explain the difference in ceiling height...
You can also see a plank of wood stuck above the first light so it's level. The plank is bolted to the ceiling and the fixtures is drilled into the plank on that end. On the other end, it's simply drilled into the ceiling liek the other two lights.
The reflectors are in different conditions too. The first fixture closest to the door has a pretty soiled reflector (see the pic of the True Value lamp) while the one all the way in the back has a spotless reflector (see the Sylvania CWX pic). the one in the middle is in between.
What's the difference between regular drywall and fireproof drywall? I thought drywall was fire-resistant in general...
I know a lot about house construction, though; I wonder if he could use regular plastic vapor barrier under this?
Maybe drywall is fireproof, but either way whatever he used was fireproof. What is vapor barrier?
these must have only been a few years old when they were removed then since they were removed in the 80s iirc...
i'd imagine they'd work fine with T8 as well.
Why do sockets have to be shunted when converting to T8 anyway? IS doesn't use the filaments at all doesn't it?
T8 instant start need shunted sockets to avoid hot spots in the end seals during operation. These hot spots might lead to vacuum loss (and sometimes lamps cracking and falling out) at EOL.