@LightsAreBright27
Omg yes! The effect would be enhanced with some longer persistence phosphor (and a focusing setup with either a coil permanent magnets), but yes that would look very very cool

Very cool indeed! Imagine if someone put deflection coils, and did some slow scan vector images. That neon beam moving around would bw so cool.

Very cool to see, I didn't think a CRT could even work with that much gas inside it. You can see the red glowing electron beam emerging from the very primitive electron gun, and it seems to visibly reach it's focal point before it reaches the phosphor screen (unsurprising as it has no focus electrode).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOAEv-jZarM

@joseph_125 - Lucky. I don’t think Home Depot and Lowe’s here stock any fluorescent fixtures anymore.

@rapidstart_12
Yes, I did look more into this. 4ft F25T12s have roughly the same voltage drop as F40T12s (~100V), so CWA characteristics almost certainly don't really play a role here.

Interesting to hear that residential ballasts underpower lamps, I would hope they would make up for that with extra cathode heating to ensure long life, but I doubt it. That definitely explains why they made the 25W version.

Since F34T12 lamps actually do have a lower voltage drop (~80V as opposed to ~100V), that causes their current to go up, loading the ballast more. But just like you said this increased ballast load is usually more noticeable in residential ballasts because the current increase is more pronounced with an HX (residential ballast) circuit than a CWA (commercial ballast) one, so more likely to cook a residential ballast than a commercial one, although of course both have cooking potential.

I did not know that special energy saving rated ballasts existed, I would assume that the 34W tubes were designed to be able to work safely in any ballast, but I suppose that was not the case. Interesting.

@Maxim - Very similar, I have the smaller 80w version though and I also got a couple of the replacement lamps for it.

@wide-lite 1000 - I've noticed the same thing as well. My 100w MV is mounted next to the door so I switched it with a /DX. Might end up switching the fixture to something like 3000K CMH or HPS in the future.

Three lamp industrials used to be more common, I could see them being used in those.

I could see that too, in Canada there are already plans in place to phase out HID and fluorescent by the end of the 2020s.

Fluorescent lamps still get some turnover but I think the fluorescent fixtures at Home Depot just sat there until they decided to stop selling them and clear up the shelving space. Although I think they still have a 2x F32T8 strip and a 2x F96T12 strip. 

To be honest it's like that with every new lighting technology though. MV was called efficient at one point, same thing about T12 fluorescent. Now HPS and T8 fluorescent was mostly sold as energy efficient upgrades.

The tungsten incandescent lamps were a lot more efficient compared to the carbon filament incandescent lamps of the 1890s and the tantalum lamps of the early 1900s.

I assume you are referring to the 4ft F25T12. The reason that lamp can’t be used on commercial ballasts has nothing to do with the capacitor or the ballast itself. The “F25T12” is nothing more than a regular F40T12 with weaker electrodes that can’t handle as much power. It’s a F40 that is designed to be underpowered. This renders it incompatible with commercial ballasts which are usually “normal ballast factor” (operate lamps at their rated power). The F25T12 would operate at 40W in this configuration, causing early failure. Residential ballasts are usually “low ballast factor,” and typically operate F40T12 lamps at 25W or less, meaning the F25T12 gets its designed power and will last its rated life.

F40T12 34W lamps will cause any ballast to run warmer, residential or commercial. In fact, earlier residential ballasts were known to get unbelievably hot with energy-saving lamps. I believe this is because the 34W lamps cause actually draw more power on LPF ballasts than 40W lamps do, which causes the ballast to operate well above its rated power and temperature. Later models like the Advance HB-234-TP were designed to handle 34W lamps better, but you should never run a 34W F40 on any residential ballast that does not say it is compatible with one. Same goes for HPF  commercial ballasts. Many units from before the 1980s were not designed for energy-saving lamps and would overheat with them, so just check your ballast before installing them. Newer ones are usually OK with them.