The number with the K at the end is the light color, it effects the white balance of your camera and the color quality of your space.
as in cool blues or more yellow
An new electronic ballast F96t12 6500K and a F96T8 6500K will look and work virtually the same except the 12 may use a tiny bit more electricity.
The biggest difference in electronically ballasted (is that a word?) is the quality of the ballast. Harmonic frequency, efficiency, distortion, buzz, start temperature etc.
Electronic ballasts are much better than the old magnetic ballasts and the crappy $9 home depot 4 footer T12s are forever going to look less brilliant and work poorly compared to any electronic ballast T12, T8, or T5.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5426758_fluorescent-t8-vs_-t12-bulbs.html
notice the light output difference is not detectable by the human eye.
Big efficiency difference here F96T8 (8ft bulb T8 style) 59 watts:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YVL8PI/?tag=atomicindus08-20
over
F96T12, 60 watts....
http://www.bulbs.com/eSpec.aspx?ID=8183
One watt difference.
If you use a crappy, lower efficiency T8 ballast, you could loose that 1 watt advantage over the T12 with a better ballast.
$5.00 a bulb vs $10 for the t8, it would take a while to make up the difference.
Of course not all T12 bulbs will always be available, in some styles, my point is that the real difference is the ballast, not the bulbs.
This is from the GE ballast catalog
Electronic T12
GE multivolt and dedicated voltage ProLine® T12 high-performance ballasts are designed for replacement of magnetic T12 electronic ballasts during maintenance or retrofits. GE multivolt ProLine® T12 ballasts have the same wiring and mounting requirements as standard magnetic ballasts and provide up to 20% energy savings by simply replacing the ballast.
The DOE ballast ruling effective April 1, 2005, prevents the sale of 4 foot and 8 foot lamp electromagnetic ballasts that operate T12 lamps and do not meet federal ballast efficiency requirements. GE ProLine® T12 electronic ballasts meet the DOE minimum ballast efficiency requirements and also allow facility managers to reduce ballast maintenance inventories by
consolidating the number of ballasts needed. GE ProLine® T12 ballasts operate both energysaving and standard wattage lamps and are also multi-voltage (120-277V). With 2 ballasts, the multi-voltage ProLine® T12 can consolidate over 40 different magnetic ballasts.
http://www.gelighting.com/na/busine...4_Ballasts_T12_Electronic_and_High_Output.pdf
I put in some new T12HO (the HO is high output) electronic ballasts and they are brilliant. I could not have converted my fixtures for the t8 bulbs, would have had to gone to a lower output bulb to do so. T8HO are very expensive.
The difference would have been negligible, the expense for the T8 bulbs would have been much worse than the 1 watt of power per bulb. With 12 bulbs in my space, that would be 12watts, if the t8 ballast would have been equal to the t12s I used.
