Were VHO germicidal lamps ever made?   

What are you trying to kill?

What are you trying to kill?

I was just wondering if such lamps were ever made...? 

It seems they were made in a 4ft 115w format. VHO lamps for general light use the RDC base instead of bi pin though. The 115w is the same though.

I believe VHO lamps for the aquarium market also used bi pin bases too instead of RDC.

Cool! Very expensive though... 

It seems they were made in a 4ft 115w format. VHO lamps for general light use the RDC base instead of bi pin though. The 115w is the same though.

I believe VHO lamps for the aquarium market also used bi pin bases too instead of RDC.

They seem uncommon, along with the ballasts.

I wonder if the electrical characteristics of the germicidal VHO lamps are the same as the VHO lamps for general lighting. VHO ballasts typically have a high OCV so starting shouldn't be an issue.

For the general purpose VHO lamps, I've ran them before on the same length HO ballast without much of a problem. They will run at reduced power but the cathode heating circuits in rapid start ballasts should prevent the sputtering associated with running fluorescents lamps at reduced power.

I was just wondering if such lamps were ever made...? 

Sorry, i just do alot of joking.

In addition to the 4ft 115W version, an even more powerful version was also made with side reflector!  They are strange looking lamps to see what looks like a half-coated fluorescent, but half coated around the tube diameter.  That inspires me to make a photo to upload here this weekend.