Light conversion

[Big Ed5150]

Hello all..

I'm sure this has been asked but will ask anyway. In my garage i have two dual florescent lights. They have the regular ballasts in them. I'm wanting to change to electronic ballasts.

My question is, do i have to change the whole light housings since the bulbs would have to be different or can i just swap out ballasts and get the right bulb that would work in the original housing. Please help on this, i'msure i confused some with my question.

thanks

 

[alv]

you did not state what size the lamps are but i assume they are 4' lamps. i would convert to electronic ballasts and t8 lamps 4100k at least for a bright light.

 

[Big Ed5150]

so just swapping the ballasts and putting new bulbs in is fine or do i need to buy a whole new light housing.

 

[Gary S]

so just swapping the ballasts and putting new bulbs in is fine or do i need to buy a whole new light housing.

You can likely find complete housings cheaper on sale than you can get the ballasts. Unless your old ones are difficult to remove, I'd just junk them and upgrade the entire housing.

 

[rsanter]

You can just install new electronic ballasts for the t12 and younare good to go...
Or you can go with the t8 ballast and new t8bulbs nag gain some efficiency

Bob

 

[71flh]

Interesting. I wondered what an electronic ballast does, and why one would want to switch, so I searched. I always guessed a ballast was a step up transformer. Apparently not. Its there to limit current.

An electronic ballast limits current and changes the frequency to around 2kHz which increases the efficiency of the lamp by about 9%, and reduces flicker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_ballast