flourescant bulbs

[rieferman]

Shoot, wife ran to depot for me while we were finishing electrical yesterday. Electrician told me we needed a contractor pack of T8 flourescant bulbs, so she picked that up for us. They work wonderfully in the new fixtures that I bought for the exercise room, but they don't seem to work in the older style fixtures that I have everywhere else in the building (they currently have thicker bulbs.. he said they don't have "electronic ballast"). Am I stuck with 22 extra bulbs (used 8 out of 30 in my 2 new fixtures) that will last me until I'm dead?

 

[Fast Orange]

You're either "stuck" with the extra lamps,or you can retrofit the older fixtures with electronic ballasts.Depending on the condition of the older fixtures,it's worth it in energy savings to convert them.The T-8 lamps and electronic ballasts can save as much as 40% of the energy used by the old lamps/ballasts.A 2 lamp electronic ballast costs about $12-$15 and will swap out wire for wire with the old ballasts.
Within a few years,you won't be able to get the old T-12 lamps anymore and you'll have to retrofit then anyway.Due to federal regulations regarding energy efficiency and mercury content,they won't be allowed to be manufactured after 2012,IIRC.

 

[tfi racing]

Perhaps sooner than that,up here they will not be available after June 2010!

 

[rieferman]

Last night, I had to move the box with 22 bulbs in it, and it just burned my a$$ to look at it for some reason. So I made my way upstairs to the 2nd story of the barn, and put the box behind some other infrequently used junk, so I can't see them. Someday, far far away, I'll replace a fixture, or blow one of the 8 bulbs in the new fixtures, and I'll grumble about having to take yet another trip to the hardware store... and then, gasp, I'll remember the box of 22 bulbs... I'll trudge upstairs, more creaks and pops in my joints than years earlier, and I'll root around the 2nd story until I find it.. right where I left it behind some other infrequently used junk that I should have tossed ages ago.. I'll blow the dust off the box, pull a bulb out (still in prestine condition), install it, and be back in business just like that <snap!>... and I'll smile remembering my past self with the burnt a$$.