Hey all,

So a few weeks back there was a picture of a duro test F14T12 lamp that had burned for a crazy amount of hours, and i was wondering what type and length of tube with the correct gear to make it last that logn would be.

Current within reasonable limits and just a single start and then let it burn...

Hey all,

So a few weeks back there was a picture of a duro test F14T12 lamp that had burned for a crazy amount of hours, and i was wondering what type and length of tube with the correct gear to make it last that logn would be.

If you want to use tube for long time use electronic ballast which preheats electrodes.If you have magnetic ballast which uses starter use electronic ones or good glowbottle ones.

Each start wears down the tube a bit, because the cathodes don't like having current run through them when cold. So as already mentioned, either just a single start or at least controlled pre-heat. I know one industrial installation which, last time I checked, had accumulated almost 100 000 hours of operation with almost all tubes still running (I will ask about the current status next time I get a chance). They are only switched once per week (Saturday is no operation there, but 24/7 from Sunday morning to Friday evening). They installed special high-quality tubes though.

Edit: By the way, that installation is magnetic pre-heat, and I have turned them on several times when I worked there several years ago. Watching several hundreds of tubes starting up at once that way was quite a nice sight. Unfortunately that was before I owned a camera phone, so no video.