A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « on: November 21, 2024, 03:59:02 PM » Author: Emersyn
School isn't typically the place to see great things (though there are many good lights at my school)... But today I was very pleasantly surprised to see one of the two 1960s wrap arounds in the auditorium that had been converted to T-8 in the 1990s, and had been out for a few months (leaving the entire staircase pitch black)... Was running two brand new American 2020 Philips Alto F40T12/CWs! I was very very shocked to see it as I haven't seen a single T-12 lamp at my school and I have seen a lot of lights at my school! I didn't have any camera so no pictures for now, but it was such a great sight to see! Perhaps, whenever the other wrap around on the other side of the auditorium gets relamped (it's in kind of a sorry state), it will also get two F40T12s! I wasn't able to tell what ballast the new F40T12s were on but either way it's so cool! That fixture got converted from T-12 to T-8  back to T-12!
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	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #1 on: November 22, 2024, 02:09:15 AM » Author: Roi_hartmann
Nice to hear someone still repairs stuff unlike the "let's just replace the whole thing" mainstream culture of nowadays.
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	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #2 on: November 22, 2024, 05:49:23 AM » Author: Emersyn
Well at my school (and probably in the district) there just doesn't seem to be enough money for that. A bunch of surface mount troffers got some not so good LED tubes in them a few years ago. While the fixtures look decent and like they're little with T-12s a bit with a slightly pinkish glow, all of the tubes have slight uneven brightness variation! Another section had these weird weird modern F32T8 'troffers' converted to LED and those ones are just completely bad. The fixtures have one ballast for every 2 fixtures seemingly and there are some pretty wild looking tubes... Some flickering, some purple, some slightly brown, some looking terrible, and some with all those traits!
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	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #3 on: November 22, 2024, 09:25:44 AM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I wonder if that fixture had its electronic ballasts replaced with magnetic ballasts.
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	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #5 on: November 22, 2024, 02:41:51 PM » Author: Emersyn
I would be a bit surprised if it has a proper T-12 ballast, but other than brightness, is there any other way to tell? I ended up going near it again today, but I wasn't expecting it and I didn't have anything to get a photo with again! I'll have a photo on Monday
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	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #6 on: November 22, 2024, 02:51:52 PM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I think that one way to determine if a proper magnetic ballast is used is to see if a digital camera picks up any flicker bands from the lamps.
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DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #7 on: November 22, 2024, 02:59:50 PM » Author: Emersyn
Ah, I meant to say with the naked eye- Though I suppose I could turn it off and try to catch the decay...
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	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #8 on: November 22, 2024, 03:02:39 PM » Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I often detect magnetic ballast flicker with the naked eye by moving my eyes back and forth while looking at the fixture. If I see a striped pattern while moving my eyes, I can then see the the tubes are running on a magnetic ballast most of the time, but occasionally, electronic ballasts produce a mains flicker when certain components are wearing out.
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Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.

	Re: A refreshing sight... T-8 to T-12 conversion! « Reply #10 on: November 22, 2024, 07:05:12 PM » Author: Emersyn
Good to know!!
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